


In The House of Madness

by Gothicsouthpaw30



Category: The Hobbit, The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit Non-Canon, The Hobbit-Alternate Universe
Genre: Alcoholism, Alternate Universe, Child Abuse, Drama, Family Drama, Gen, Love, M/M, Mental Illness, Multi, Murder Mystery, Past Pain, Romance, personal struggles, psychiatry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-02-14 14:56:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 24
Words: 20,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2196087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothicsouthpaw30/pseuds/Gothicsouthpaw30
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In this Alternate Universe:</p><p>The Oakenshield's, though successful and having all that they have ever desired, are plagued with a slew of familial tragedies and Child Psychiatrist Dr. Bofur Khairyn is distraught when yet again, a situation arises that could tear the historical family apart for good. </p><p>His beloved Niece, Sada, for reasons yet to be determined, attacked her unassuming father late one night.</p><p>Fearing for his niece, and also that He will succumb to his own demons as the story unfolds, Dr. Khairyn calls for aide from the only one He has ever truly trusted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

He didn’t see her; that was good, He was busying himself by rummaging through the fridge for a late night snack.

He grumbled something She didn’t catch, her heartbeat pounded too loudly in her ears, and her palms were becoming bothersome.

She had to take her chance then!

“Hey,” She offered as she crept up behind him, and he cried out and jumped; spinning around he dropped his can of soda and eyed her with an expression of amused frustration.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on me!” He chuckled, “You scared me!”

“Sorry, I guess,” She said as she gripped the knife in her hands behind her back.

“What are you up so late for?” 

“Couldn’t sleep,” She muttered as he bent to pick up the can of soda, “Are you just getting to bed?”

“Yeah,” He sighed as he placed the can of soda back in the refrigerator and grabbed another one, “So should you! Come on, I’ll take you to bed.”

“You’re wearing that robe again,” She pointed out, and he stopped and looked down at his clothing; his brow wrinkled and he pulled at the robe for a moment before giving a shrug.

“Guess I like it,” He observed, “Come on…bed time!”

“Yours or mine?”

When he closed the fridge door, only the lights from the streetlights below illuminated their surroundings, casting them in an eerie glow.

“What do you mean?” He asked, “Honey…what’s wrong?”

Bringing the large knife into view, She hesitated as He sucked in his breath and took a step back, and she said flatly:

“You’re not my Dad!”


	2. A Morning Interuppted.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After another session with a regular patient, Dr. Bofur Khairyn is shocked, when he receives a much unwanted phone call from his nephew.

_**LATER THAT MORNING:** _

 

The little boy, as usual, had no interest in his session with him.

Joseph was his usual self, a typical eight-year-old for the most part, but every once in a while his demeanor left some to question even that.

"Who are ye talking to Joseph?"

The boy, who had just then turned and muttered something at a wall littered with children’s drawings, turned and studied the softly smiling gentlemen whom scratched something down on the notepad resting in his lap.

Joseph blinked, once, twice, and then went back to his coloring book with a shrug.

"That’s okay," His doctor sighed gently, "I guess I’ll get to talk to ‘im when he’s ready!"

"He don’t like you," Joseph blurted as he concentrated on his coloring, "He says that’s not medicine you givin’ me!"

"Why does he say that?" The Doctor pressed, "Is it because of what your mother told me? That it makes you sick?"

Again Joseph turned and looked at the wall, actively listening to someone who wasn’t there, then he went back to his coloring book without another word to his Doctor.

"Is that why yer mother found yer pills underneath yer bed?"

Joseph muttered something yet refused to meet the Doctor’s concerned gaze.

Clearing his throat, scribbling some more notes, Dr. Bofur Khairyn looked at his wristwatch and nodded to himself.

"I think that’s enough for today Joseph," Dr. Khairyn announced as he rose from his chair, "Come on, Let’s get you out there to your mother, I’m sure you’re more than ready to get back home."

Exiting his office and guiding the child down a dimly lit corridor, Joseph stopped short of the approaching lobby, and observed a surreal piece of art that hung by itself upon a dully painted wall.

"Interesting, isn’t it?" Dr. Khairyn asked as he stood studying the painting, "It’s meant to depict the passage of time."

Joseph looked at Dr. Khairyn then, giggled to himself, and continued down the corridor.

Bofur was close behind and, smiling, watched for a moment while Joseph ran out into lobby and into his kneeling mother’s arms.

"Was he good?" His mother asked, looking as though her next stop would be at an exclusive dinner party, "Did you behave, honey?"

"He always does," Dr. Khairyn assured Mrs. Dorsett when she stood up straight and offered a nervous smile, "I see that his favorite color is still red!"

With that Dr. Khairyn handed Mrs. Dorsett her child’s coloring book and asked: "Would it be alrigh' if we spoke privately? Just o'er there? We can still see Joseph of course."

Mrs. Dorsett nodded and, after handing her son his favorite item, ordered him to sit patiently in one of the lobby chairs just before following Dr. Khairyn.

"He seems to be doing alright for now," Bofur explained as he watched, over the woman’s shoulder, as Joseph flipped through his coloring book.

"What’s important is just sticking with the therapy and medication. I know it’s been difficult but~"

"Can’t you increase the dosage? He’s still talking to that…whatever he thinks it is!"

Bofur bit back his agitation, looked at his feet as he rubbed his thumb and index finger together as he thought, and then He confessed as calmly as he could:

"Yer boys only been taking them for a month now…sporadically and~"

"What do you mean sporadically?" Mrs. Dorsett demanded with narrowed eyes, "I give him his medicine just as _you_ prescribed I do!"

 _‘Sure,’_ Dr. Khairyn thought sarcastically _, ‘That’s why His symptoms haven't changed in the past few months!’_

Banishing his negative thoughts, Dr. Khairyn offered his best fake smile, and explained:

"There’s a reason I placed him on such a low dosage. I recommended _Risperdal_ because its considered one of the medicines with the least amount of adverse side affects. He’s only eight, Mrs. Dorsett, I think we need to be patient. Increasing the dosage…I think that would be unwise right now."

"Do you?" Mrs. Dorsett questioned as she pulled a stiff tissue from her coat pocket, "Very well, I’ll give it time, do like you suggested and all! Shall we schedule a time for next month, then?"

 _‘You won’t be here,’_ Bofur thought bitterly to himself as he offered a nod and directed Mrs. Dorsett toward his receptionist, _‘Yer desperate to get a ball and chain around yer kid so you can hold your head up high at the country club again!’_

"Oh! Dr. Khairyn!" His receptionist, Veronica, said suddenly as she stood up quickly with the phone receiver in her hand, "A call for you…it’s an emergency!"

Sighing, Bofur thought of the irony for a moment, and quickly took the phone from Veronica who then turned her attention to Mrs. Dorsett.

"Hello, this is Dr. Khairyn, how can I-Fili? Yeah…okay! Calm down! What was that?"

His eyes widened, Bofur grabbed the corner of Veronica’s desk to steady himself, and, taking a deep breath He said quickly: "I’m on my way, right now okay? I’m headed there right now!"

When the other end went dead, Bofur set the receiver down and, as he turned to hurry back to his office, He ordered Veronica to cancel the rest of his morning appointments.


	3. Bits and Pieces.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Khairyn arrives at the Hospital to see his niece.
> 
> Before he does, he's met by his oldest nephew Fili, and get some information.

He hadn’t needed to go to the nurse’s station to ask for directions when he’d arrived by a cab at the hospital.

With a sigh Dr. Khairyn admitted that he’d been to that particular medical wing more times than he cared to remember.

Taking the elevator, with his back against the cool metal wall, the Doctor mentally ran down the list of scattered information He’d gathered from Fili over the phone.

A stabbing had happened.

She was in hysterics.

Her father wasn’t helping.

And he, a young dwarf he considered his nephew, was at a loss as to what to do next.

When the elevator opened upon his pre-destined floor, Bofur stood staring at the pastel wall across the way, truly reluctant to step out from the car of the elevator.

‘Just another day,’ Bofur told himself with a sigh as he exited the car at last, ‘where I wish I’d become a carpenter like me father!”

He spotted his nephew first and when the young, blonde haired dwarf spotted him as well, He jumped up from his chair and hurried over.

“Hello Fili!” He said as he offered his own tight hug in return to his nephews, “It’s okay, I’m here now! Where’s Kili?”

The young dwarf, clothed in faded denim jeans and a university sweatshirt, jutted his thumb over his shoulder to where his own little brother sat.

“He’s been the only one to keep a cool head,” Fili explained with a smirk, “Eh…Thorin is getting stitched up and the cops are talking to him right now.”

Dr. Khairyn nodded yet said nothing before approaching the dark haired youth that sat in the waiting area studying his aged Rubik’s cube.

“Hello Kili,” Bofur offered gently as he kneeled in front of the silent boy, noting the blood on his hands, “It’s Uncle Bofur…Dr. Khairyn…I hope you’re doing alright.”

Kili, having nearly completed the puzzle successfully, looked up at the pleasant looking child psychiatrist and blinked a time or two before going back to his puzzle with a sniffle.

Rising, motioning to his oldest nephew, Bofur guided Fili away from his brother and asked as quietly as he could: “The blood? On his fingers?”

“When I got to the kitchen He was behind me,” Fili started as he rubbed his eyes with his palms, “He had a fit and I had to wrestle him out of there before I could get anything done. He’s not ready to-uh-let anyone touch him just yet. You know how he can be!”

Bofur nodded, pulled a small notepad and a pen from the pocket inside his jacket, and scribbled something down before asking:

“Can you tell me anything at all? What was going on prior to all of this?”

Fili shrugged, thought for a long moment, and mumbled: “Just the usual bull shit.”

“Ah,” Bofur sighed as he scribbled more down on his note pad, “So Thorin’s been off and gone for the most part?”

“Yeah,” Fili confirmed with a snort, “He was actually supposed to leave this morning.”

“Okay…but was there any significant event…any recent ones?”

Fili shook his head, hesitated, and then moaned as he bowed and shook his head.

“Yeah?” Bofur pressed, “What is it?’

“Self injurious behavior,” Fili sighed as he kept his eyes cast to the floor, “Um…cuts on her arms and bruises too. I just noticed them a couple days ago…I’m sorry Bofur, I should have said something sooner! I’m majoring in psychiatry but~”

“It’s fine,” Bofur said gently, “Had she, I hate to put you on the spot, but has she started to menstruate?”

“Uh, yeah, at least I think so!” Fili confessed with an exasperated sigh, “The maid found some bloody clothes a couple weeks ago…I heard Thorin talking to her about going to a doctor about it. Isn’t she too young though? To already be…you know?”

Dr. Khairyn shook his head; “Perfectly normal, since she’s ten, lad. How was her relationship with ‘er Daddy before this?”

Fili looked over His shoulder, making sure Kili was busy with his toy, and said in a low tone:

“It was fine, she was her usual ‘daddy’s girl’ self…but there have been fights about the usual teenybopper stuff, y’know? About curfews and boys and all but...that was a while ago.”

“Boys?” Dr. Khairyn repeated, “Does she have a crush? Was she wanting to date or something?”

Fili shrugged; “Not that I know of,” He answered, “I just know that Uncle Thorin didn’t want her associating with them…they fought a lot about school dances and whatnot and then...”

Fili shrugged then, turned and looked at his little brother again, and then turned back to Dr. Khairyn as he waited patiently.

 _‘Now that’s Thorin through and through,’_ Bofur thought as he continued to write, _‘Possessive to a fault!’_

“How has she been since the incident?” Bofur inquired after he finished writing, “Where is she now?”

“Like I told you,” Fili sighed, “She was flipping the hell out even before the ambulance came…it took two cops to get the knife away and then they had to help restrain her to get her into the ambulance. She’s in the last room down the hall. Sedated…and strapped down to the bed.”

“Alright,” Bofur sighed, “That’s all I need for now. You stay here, I’ll go and see about Sada.”

“Uncle,” Fili called as he hurried up to the psychaitrist, “Um…sh-she was screaming about how she had to do it…because if she didn’t he was going to kill all of us.”


	4. The Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Dr. Khairyn sits in, two rough looking detectives come to question Sada, and the Child Psychiatrist finds himself terribly afraid for the young dwarf.

Walking into the room, seeing her in the state she was, Dr. Khairyn felt his heart fill with great sorrow.

Sada Oakenshield, His sister’s daughter, was bound to the bed by four point four restraints and staring up at the ceiling with empty and glazed eyes.

The girl made no sign that she knew he was there; she only continued to stare blankly up at the ceiling as if she were still alone in the sterile room.

 _‘Heavily drugged,’_ Bofur told him self as he noted the deep gashes embedded in Sada’s pale arms for the first time, _‘Probably having trouble remembering how she got here.’_

"Baby," Bofur offered with a sigh, daring to clutch her limp hand in his larger and warmer one, "I’m going to stay right here with you. When you’re ready…ye can talk to me…okay?"

He couldn’t say he was surprised by the situation but, as he pulled up a chair next to the bed, Bofur certainly wished this had not come about.

The Oakenshield Family, as renowned and successful as they were and had been for the past two hundred years, also bore many terrible family tragedies.

A disappearance, two suicides, a fatal car crash, and now…

Bofur sniffed, wondered if the police would deem this an attempted murder or an assault with a deadly weapon case, and cast his eyes towards the ceiling as he thought.

‘ _I knew it would be hard,’_ The Doctor told himself as he crossed his legs, _‘Fer the whole lot of ‘em when Nola and Dis passed but…how could I not see this coimin’ considerin~’_

Sada moaned, wriggled her feet in the straps, and took a deep breath.

"Honey?" Bofur asked gently, "Are ye alright? Do ye need a drink of water?"

Sada blinked then, her body tensed for a moment, and she turned her head slowly toward her Uncle.

"Is Daddy mad?" Sada asked, a tear flushing from her eye and sliding across her nose before absorbing into the pillow, "Is he okay/"

"I dunno lass," Bofur confessed as he reached over and wiped away the wetness from his nieces eye, "I haven’t spoken to him yet."

"How…how long have I been here?" Sada inquired when she looked back up at the ceiling; "Do I have to keep these things on?"

She pulled at the restraints, pouted, and then stared desperately at her uncle with pleading eyes.

"It up to the doctor," Bofur explained, "When they brought you in you were hysterical. They had to keep you safe as well as themselves."

"I’m calm now," Sada whimpered, "They hurt! They’re hurting my wrists!"

"Okay," Bofur sighed, smoothing Sada’s hair, "I’ll call for someone but first…what happened honey?"

"Tha’s what we would like to know!" Boomed a gruff voice as he entered Sada’s room, "But first…who the hell are ye?"

Dr. Khairyn rose and faced the two scowling dwarves, both of them clothed in heavy trench coats, with their badges hanging proudly on display around both of their necks.

"Dr. Bofur Khairyn, child psychiatrist, I’m just visitin’ with me niece."

"I know ye!" The shorter dwarf pointed out with a laugh, running a hand through his flaming red hair and then tugging at his beard.

"Yer that Doc that writes those articles in those psychology magazines! Any ways…My name is Detective Gloin Riche and this is my partner~"

"Detective Dwalin Medved," the taller and more menacing dwarf cut in, "We’ve gotta talk to the lass. If she’s yer niece then yer family, aye?"

"Yes," Bofur confirmed, "I’m her uncle and thought I’d better stop by and~"

"Do ye think ye could stay while we questioned her?"

"What of ‘er father?" Dr. Khairyn asked, "What does he say?"

"He says to hurry," Detective Medved barked as he pulled a small notepad, similar to Bofur’s own, out of his trench coat pocket.

 _‘Sounds like something Thorin would say,’_ Bofur thought bitterly as he re-seated him self, _‘Probably just sittin’ around and wondering how much the hospital bill will be after all is said and done!’_

"Be done with it then," Bofur permitted, "and don’t be rough with the girl…she’s had quite a shock!"

Detective Medved grumbled something Bofur didn’t catch and, after readying a pen against his notepad, asked gruffly:

  
"Yer father says that, for reasons unknown, ye took a knife to him. Stabbing him through his left shoulder and slashing across his chest, and then when he started to fight back ye barricaded yer self in a nearby toilet?"

Sada looked at Bofur, whom sighed and offered only a nod, before she turned her glazed eyes up at Dwalin’s and mumbled:

"I guess so."

"Ye guess or ye know?" Dwalin asked curtly, tapping his pen against his note pad, "Because from what both your Da’ and cousin say…it was you who went a bit knife happy!"

"Detective!" Dr. Khairyn snapped, "Regardless of the situation…remember she’s but a girl!"

Detective Riche cleared his throat and patted Dwalin’s beefy shoulder, stilling the taller dwarf’s sharp tongue, and then asked Sada gently:

"Do you remember what happened? Could you tell us in yer own words lass?"

Sada sighed, looked at the ceiling again, and after taking another deep breath she said softly:

"I thought that…when I did it…I wasn’t stabbing my father. I know it wasn’t him!"

"So…Ye got scared and thought yer Daddy was an intruder?" Detective Riche asked as he inclined his head, "is tha’ it?"

"No!" Sada snapped so curtly and suddenly that Dr. Khairyn felt a chill race up his spine, "I mean that at the time…I don’t know…but it wasn’t my Daddy!"

 _‘Mahal,’_ Bofur thought as he gulped loudly, _‘Please tell me…not her!’_


	5. A Glimpse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This really is a filler chapter in which I mean to offer a glimpse into the Oakenshield Family tragedies...as well as a glimpse into the mind of the villain.

“She’s in no state to keep answering’ yer silly questions!”

“Silly? The girl damn near gutted ‘er father! I had to ask it! What? Do ye really think she had it in ‘er head to kill ‘im?”

Before Dr. Khairyn could respond to Detective Medved’s question, the needed hospital staff entered the room and instantly swarmed the bed where Sada wailed and writhed.

“Out!” Shouted the doctor with a point of his finger, “Get out!”

Dr. Khairyn obeyed and was followed by the two detectives out into the hallway.

“Before ye shoot off yer mouth again, sir,” Bofur warned the scowling Detective, “I’ve a young nephew-just down the hall there-who is autistic and doesn’t do well when things are goin’ wild…keep yer tone mellow and your voice _just-like-this_ …do ye hear me?”

Detective Medved looked at his partner, the other detective raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in response, and at last he grunted and answered as softly as he could: “Fine. But we still need to talk with the child!”

“It was silly of you to think ye could do so this soon!” Dr. Khairyn scolded, “Why would you think now was the best time?”

“I gave them permission,” Answered a voice behind Bofur, “I thought it would be alright since you were in there with her. Clearly, I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

Bofur turned, looked Thorin Oakenshield him self up and down, and studied the arm that rested in a sling for a moment before replying flatly:

“Aye, ye were, the girl has suffered a terrible trauma…she shouldn’t be put under the proverbial microscope just yet. She needs time.”

Thorin Oakenshield, CEO of Oakenshield Enterprises, smirked at his one time brother-in-law, and then turned his gaze to the detectives.

“Why is she hysterical again?”

“Eh, well, everything was going a’right but…then we asked about certain things and she got ‘er self rather worked up,” Detective Riche explained, “I think Doc Khairyn ‘ere is right…We should wait before we try to talk to ‘er-eh-I’m guessing you need to evaluate her first?”

Hearing his daughter’s wails, Thorin closed his eyes and took a moment for himself, before directing all of them away from the door and down the hall. Closer to where his worried nephews waited.

“I was actually hoping to have the matter cleared up rather quickly,” Thorin confessed with a sigh, “I want my daughter home as soon as possible! This situation is unfortunate…but it can be mended nonetheless.”

“If done so quickly it won’t be,” Bofur pointed out, “Yer daughter attacked ye…probably with the intent to kill ye, Thorin, she has to be evaluated and fer now…it’s best she’s kept here.”

Thorin cast his piercing eyes upon the child psychiatrist and, like Bofur had done to him, he looked the dwarf up and down.

“You?” He asked, his voice thick with cold amusement, “You would rather I kept my little girl here in this place? Rather than caring for her in a good and loving home?”

“Some would question that at present,” Bofur pointed out, secretly pleased to see the anger flare up in Thorin’s eyes.

“She needs to be monitored, evaluated, and given leave by a trusted professional before she can be released and, Ye really should know, it might be deemed unwise to return ‘er to yer home.”

“FINE!” Thorin bellowed, pointing his finger toward his daughter’s room, “Get in there and talk to her! In the mean time I’ll talk to these gentlemen and any one else who comes snooping into my family’s private matters! But in the end…I will have my little girl home with me! This was just an accident!”

“Thorin!” Fili called out suddenly, causing all four elder dwarves to turn, and instantly the business tycoon moaned under his breath.

Forsaking the rule, having risen his voice, his youngest nephew Kili was now standing and looking at him with a face of utter disdain.

One hand clutched his Rubik’s cube while the other tugged unmercifully at his right ear while Kili whimpered and shifted nervously on his feet.

“Go to him and calm him down,” Bofur ordered softly, “You know what to do! I will meet with Ye later!”

Thorin at last, to Bofur’s amazement, conceded to his orders without argument and headed toward his distressed nephew.

“Wow,” Detective Medved observed, “That family is really off! Aint ‘e the one who lost ‘is ma in a car wreck a year or so ago?”

His partner nodded as he gnawed on his thumb nail; “Aye…I remember readin’ that she was in the car with that other poor woman…the one who got ‘er head sliced off by the seat belt!”

“Actually,” Bofur sighed just as he started making his way toward Thorin and his nephews, “That was an embellishment. A gross exaggeration on behalf of that Shitty tabloid _‘The Dragon’s mouth.’_   Her head was still very much attached.”

“How would you know?” Detective Medved snapped, “Were ye there?”

“I was called upon and identified ‘er body,” Dr. Khairyn explained with a dangerous glare at the detectives, “She, Nola, she was my baby sister. G’day to ye!”

“Wait! We aint done here!” Detective Riche protested as he hurried after Bofur, “Here, my card, If I don’t call ye…you call me alright?”

“Why would I call you at all?” Bofur inquired, “I can’t do much. I’ll have to refer Sada to another psychiatrist being that I’m family!”

“It’s because yer family that we’ll probably need to interview you,” Detective Riche explained, “Just between you an’ I…I think we both suspect that something really bad has happened here!”

_**LATER THAT NIGHT:** _

_That stupid little bitch!_

_All she had to do was keep her damn mouth shut and be a good girl!_

_Now…now he’d have to think._

_It was too bad she didn’t succeed in gutting that son of a whore but that was neither here nor there._

_He was getting close, too close to just throw it all away, and He was more determined than ever to get what should have always been his!_

_“Gotta be patient,” He told him self as he took a swig of brandy straight from the bottle, “Thorin will get her back in no time, with all the pull he has over this whole fucking city, and then it’ll all be a matter of timing.”_


	6. The Interrogation.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur willingly submits himself to a police interview wherein he's forced to recount that darker parts of his troubling past.
> 
> (Trying to introduce the reader to everything that has made Doc Khairyn, Doc Khairyn, if y'know what I mean :-)

"Detective, nice to see ye again, I hope you have been well."

Detective Riche shook Bofur’s hand from across the table before taking his seat and pressing the record button on the tap player.

"This Detective Gloin Riche," Riche purred, I’m here with-eh-Doctor Bofur Khairyn, Child Psychiatrist and Uncle to one Sada Oakenshield. Doctor, would you mind stating your name, age, and date of birth?"

Bofur did as instructed, watched Gloin set a writing tablet and ballpoint pen down in front of him, and waited for the slew of questions to come.

"Have Ye or did ye notice any changes in Sada’s behavior? Were there changes in her relationships with Mr. Oakenshield and her cousins prior to the attack?"

Bofur shook his head; then, when Gloin indicated the recorder, the dwarf cleared his throat and stated plainly: "No I did not. Sada, up until the event, was an excellent student as well as happy, sociable lass.

Her cousins and she are as thick as thieves, dedicated to one another really, and Her relationship with ‘er father seemed to be on the-um-up and up."

Before Gloin could ask his next question, Bofur shifted and coughed, and confessed:

"But…I haven’t been around as much as I would have liked…I-eh-was away at treatment fer sometime about…two years ago? I was gone fer six months to be exact."

Detective Riche looked at Dr. Khairyn curiously, scribbled on his tablet, and then asked:

"Treatment for…?"

"Uh…alcoholism," Bofur answered with a sigh, "I had to close my practice fer that time. I went to ‘Sun on the Horizon" rehabilitation facility in-eh-Dunland."

"Were you ever around Sada when you were intoxicated? Before you went to treatment, I mean?"

Bofur closed his eyes and took a steadying breath.

 _‘Just doin’ his job,’_ Bofur told himself, _‘He’s not attacking you. He’s just doing his job.’_

"No, never, I did me drinkin’ alone at home."

"Are you sure?" Gloin asked gruffly, "You never suffered…blackouts or anything?"

Bofur couldn’t stop his glare, for a tense moment all he did was study Detective Riche, and then at last he explained:

"I live half-way across this grand city of Erebor…and I had the uncanny ability-inherited from me father-to drink myself sober. Tha’s what I did fer the most part before I started getting ulcers…never once did I suffer a black out."

He didn’t believe him, Bofur could clearly see that as Gloin nodded and wrote for a long while, yet he still maintained his calm demeanor.

"What can you tell me of yer relationship with Sada?" Detective Riche inquired next, "Um…at the hospital you were rather protective of her."

"Aye," Dr. Khairyn agreed as he crossed his leg over his knee and studied his boot, "She’s the only child of my late sister…tha’ and bein’ a child psychiatrist…People who do what I do…are fiercely protective of children any ways. But to answer yer question…we were close."

"Were?" Detective Riche questioned, "What changed?"

"I thought I knew ‘er," Bofur answered with a sigh, "But…that girl in that hospital room? Tha’s not the Sada I know!"

Detective Riche nodded and scribbled some more, then he cleared his throat, folded his arms upon the table and asked softly:

"So you’ve been doing well since treatment? There are no pent up feelings about having to have your cousin committed? No lasting damage from your childhood?"

Dr. Khairyn flinched, slouched in his chair, and couldn’t help but utter a nervous chuckle.

"I fail to see where he, or that, comes into all o’ this," He confessed as he tugged at his moustache, "That was a some time ago, I was still in college, and I hadn’t been home! Jeez…all o’ that was before even rehab!"

 _'This fool is tryin' to mind fuck me!'_ Dr. Khairyn realized with a smirk, ' _surely He didn't think he could get away with it?'_

"He went off his meds during your sophomore year," Detective Riche began to recount, "Disappeared for a bit…and nearly killed someone, right?"

"He wasn’t in ‘is right mind," Bofur pointed out as he rubbed at his eyes, "I know what ye must be thinkin’ but yer wrong sir! He was brain damaged in a mining accident! What happened to him wasn’t the fault of flawed genetics so I’ve inherited no…deviant behavior!"

"If I’ve calculated it correctly, you alcohol dependence shot up during that time," Gloin pointed out as he tapped his pen on his tablet, "He raised you and your siblings, didn’t he?"

Bofur felt his heart pounding as his memory involuntarily recalled his childhood.

"You…you knew all o’ this before I came in, didn’t ye?" He asked with a scoff, "Yer just trying to see if it adds up to somethin’ right?"

Gloin, to Bofur’s amazement, shrugged.

"A severely abusive father, no mother, I’ve heard said you got the worst of it~"

"I chose," Bofur pointed out, "I chose to get the beating’s to protect my brother and sister. We would’ve died had it not been fer Cousin Bifur! So, yes, I took it hard when I couldn’t help him!

But, what ye fail to recognize sir, is that I am not damaged from those times. Well, not in the way ye think I am, I’m sure Mr. Oakenshield has conveyed to ye that particular concern…aye?"

"The two of you don’t get along do you? Actually...I'm told the two of you seem to...hate one another?"

"Ye were there at the hospital," Bofur mentioned, "Ye know we don’t. I don’t think he’s…present enough in the lives of those under his care!"

"Uh-huh," Gloin mused as he leaned back in his chair; "May I ask you something? Just completely off the record?"

To show Bofur He was being true to his word, Gloin stopped the recorder, and waited until the Doctor nodded.

"What do you think of it all?"

"She’s scared," Bofur explained with another sigh, "Probably suffered some kind of abuse and it-the trauma of it-accumulated into her attacking Thorin."

"So you think it’s Thorin’s fault?" Gloin inquired, "You think he’s been hurting your niece?"

"I dunno," Bofur admitted as he tugged at his moustache again, "She’s embellishing…the last time I spoke to ‘er…She told me this tale of a monster that comes to her and she's adamant that ‘er Daddy has done nothing…fer now? I’ve no idea what’s hurtin’ that poor girl so badly!"

Detective Riche nodded as he absorbed all of the information and at last stood with a satisfied grunt.

"I understand she’s been doing well," Gloin explained as he began to gather his supplies, "Do you think she’ll be released soon?"

"I hope so," Bofur admitted as he rose to his own feet, "Sada’s not getting the help she needs, I don't think so, any ways."


	7. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur, having gotten temporary custody of Sada, goes to the airport to pick an old, and very dear friend.

FOUR WEEKS LATER:

“But, Uncle Bo, I really don’t wanna talk to any one else! And you’ve helped me before!”

“I know baby,” Bofur explained as he continued to pack Sada’s suitcase, “But that was off the record, if ye get me, ye weren’t really my patient. I helped ye out because yer me niece. But, right now, Ye gotta talk to someone else bein’ that…because of what’s happened!”

Sada, sitting crossed legged and cuddling a teddy bear on her hospital bed, pouted yet said nothing.

“But…I’m going home though, right?” She asked as Bofur closed and latched the suitcase, “I mean…you said Daddy isn’t mad.”

“He’s not,” Bofur answered as he picked up the suitcase in one hand, “But fer now you’ll be staying with me. Until it’s all sorted.”

“But,” Sada whimpered as tears shimmered in her eyes, “I didn’t mean to hurt him!”

“We know,” Bofur offered delicately, “The problem is…We’ve still got a lot to figure out and when it has been, I promise ye, you’ll get to go home.”

“You don’t believe me!” Sada sniffled, wiping her nose with the teddy bear, “You think Daddy hurt me don’t you?”

Bofur sighed, set the suitcase down, and came to sit next to his niece.

He didn’t know what to believe, honestly, all he could rely upon is what his experience and skill had taught him.

Sada was being abused, that was a given, but the girl had proved difficult to help over the past few weeks.

“It’s not Daddy!” Sada had sobbed when the court appointed Psychiatrist had pressed her for needed information, “It’s not Daddy or Fili or any one else!”

“But why stab your father Sada?” The naive therapist had continued to ask, “What made you want to hurt him?”

“I TOLD YOU IT WASN’T DADDY!” Sada screamed, slapping her hands on her thighs so hard that they developed large bruises later.

Having seen enough, and after several arguments with her father, Bofur finally got the permission he needed and placed the call a week ago.

He was, after all, the only one Bofur knew had the best chance of helping, maybe even healing, Sada.

His plane was due to arrive in the next two hours or so.

 _‘Maybe He’ll even help me,’_ Bofur confessed as he hugged Sada and planted a kiss upon her head, _‘Cause I feel like me heads about to explode at any moment now!’_

“Ye know that ye still will get to visit yer Daddy, don’t ye?” Dr. Khairyn asked, hoping it would comfort Sada in some way.

The little girl nodded and Bofur gave her another squeeze with his arm draped about her shoulders.

“Come on then,” He ushered, “Let’s get to my place and get ye squared away. After we pick up my friend we’ll go out fer a bite to eat.”  
****************************************************************************************************************************** “You mean Bilbo? The one that used to work for you?”

Bofur chuckled, squeezed Sada’s little hand in his as they waited at the terminal, and replied:

“Aye, ye didn’t see ‘im a lot but when ye did ye really seemed to like ‘im.”

“He’s a baby doctor like you?” Sada asked just as the door opened and passengers began to flood into Erebor International Airport. 

“A child psychiatrist,” Bofur corrected, “One of the best!”

Just then, his stomach tightened, Bofur’s eyes melted into his almost the instant he stepped into view.

With a smile and a wave, after readjusting his shoulder bag, Doctor Bilbo Baggins hurried over and hugged Bofur with one arm while he said:

“That had to be the bumpiest flight I have ever taken!”

“Where are your shoes?” Sada inquired as she gawked at the Hobbit’s large feet; “Did you forget them?”

“Oh, I don’t need them,” Bilbo explained as he turned his attention to Sada for the moment, “My feet are tough enough!”

“And hairy too!” Sada added as she bent to prod at the hobbit’s furred feet.

“No, no!” Bofur chuckled as he wrenched Sada back up, “Don’t be rude lass!”

“She’s fine,” Bilbo offered with a wave of his hand, “She not the first curious child to pull at them! Now, let’s get the rest of my luggage shall we?”

 

With the task done, Bofur led all of them to a waiting cab, and he noticed how Bilbo’s eyes lingered on him for a moment or so before he dipped into the waiting car.

“Will we go eat now?” Sada inquired as the cab began making its way; “I’m starving!”

“Aye,” Bofur confirmed, “I thought maybe _The Arkenstone_ would do us all some good!”

Bilbo smiled, inclined his head, and arched his eyebrow.

Bofur smirked and shrugged; “Best steak in Erebor,” He explained with a wave of his hand, “I should know…Bombur’s the head chef!”

Bilbo chuckled, studied his massive feet, and then asked: “Still? So both of you are doing quite well then?”

Bofur cleared his throat, looked at Sada whom surveyed the passing scenes from out of the car window, and then replied:

“Bombur’s always done well and I’m…I’m still going.”

“I know,” The hobbit confessed, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on with a sniff.

“I’ve read your articles…ingenious, really!”

“Considering yer the one whose a published author,” Bofur chuckled, “I’ll take tha’ as a compliment!”

“You write books?” Sada asked, turning her attention to the golden haired hobbit, “What kind?”

“Oh…psychiatry,” Bilbo confessed, “Nothing to interesting!”

“Don’t be so modest,” Bofur offered as Sada cuddled up to him, “You had quite a few ingenious theories your self!”

As the cab came to a stop, Bofur ordered Sada and Bilbo out first, and then exited when he’d paid the driver.

“Do you think we can still request our table?” Bilbo asked, and then gnawed on his lower lip, while Bofur hesitated and cast a nervous glance at Sada who waited by the double doors of the restaurant.  
“Actually,” The dwarf confessed as he thrust his pockets into his trousers, “I took the liberty of calling ahead…Bombur should still be keepin’ it fer us!”

“Sentimental?” Bilbo asked as he lifted his sunglasses to stare amusedly at the dwarf, “Or just possessive?”

“Ach!” Bofur chuckled, “Let’s get in there! I’ve been pining away fer me brother’s _filet mignon_ all day!”


	8. Two Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back at his hotel Bofur and Bilbo discuss Sada and the latter psychiatrist recommends a procedure that shocks the Dwarf.

“Bombur has not much changed,” The hobbit observed as he leaned his shoulder against the wall of the moving elevator, “Still as shy as ever!”

“But thrice as wide!” Bofur chuckled as he studied his boots, “He and Sela test out their recipes on each other daily…maybe second by second even!”

Bilbo snickered and removed his sunglasses, studying Bofur for a moment, before observing:

“Your nephew, Fili, He’s much like the way I remember you. Very devoted!”

“Aye,” Bofur agreed as he tugged at his moustache as he thought, “Hopefully, though, the lad won’t take too much after me!”

Bilbo cast Bofur a bemused expression just as the elevator dinged, opened it doors, and allowed the two to finally venture to Bilbo’s reserved hotel room.

“It was kind of Thorin, to rent me this room, I could have easily rented some other place with my own money!”

“He always does so fer important guests,” Bofur pointed out flatly, “To make a good first impression.”

“Well, it worked,” Bilbo chuckled as he headed down the hall with his shoulder bag and wheeled suitcase, “This is quite a building!”

“Built and Owned by Oakenshield Enterprises,” Bofur pointed out softly, “I think, as of late, he’s built several all across Middle Earth! As a matter of fact…wasn’t he supposed to build one of this like back in Hobbiton?”

“Oh…I don’t know,” Bilbo confessed in a huff as he finally reached his room, “Wil and I…We broke up sometime ago.”

Bofur smirked, looked at Bilbo apologetically, but the hobbit waved his hand dismissively.

“My practice and studies kept me far too busy to maintain a relationship,” Bilbo explained as he slid his key card into the electronic lock, “We were never very serious any ways.”

“Ah,” Bofur responded as he stood in the doorway after Bilbo made his way inside, “Well…I hope ye haven’t had to go too far out of yer way to help us out here.”

“No,” Bilbo said over his shoulder as he set his luggage aside, then motioned for Bofur to come into his room. 

“I’m on holiday from University and my partners at the practice can handle things. But, for now, I’d rather like to discuss the file you faxed to me earlier. If that would be alright?”

Bofur nodded and followed Bilbo’s instruction, to sit at the small table in the corner of his large room, and said just as the hobbit began to open one of his suitcases:

“I know it’s a bit thrown together…but the situation being as it is…I had to be swift. Ye know how the Dwarven Law can be!”

“Oh yes,” Bilbo chuckled as he pulled the large manila envelope into view, “It stays with you, all those funny laws, it took me a while to assimilate back into the ways of the Shire Folk!”

Seating himself, mumbling non-important things, Bilbo pulled a few documents out of the bulging envelope and set them in the center of the table.

“What concerns me,” Bilbo began he folded his hand into his lap, “Is the lack of a diagnosis. Um…it doesn’t look as though any attempt has been made to find one. I’m assuming that’s all to do with the girl and her willingness to share information?”

“Aye,” Bofur confessed as he slouched, “She’s been…giving us the run around, I think, is the best way to put it.”

“Yes,” Bilbo agreed, “You stated that she’s embellishing a story of some type of bogey man?”

“That’s who she claims she attacked,” Bofur explained as he reached into his jacket pocket, “She is adamant that Thorin wasn’t Thorin but…when we press her to explain she just spouts off that she can say no more than that. If She's still pressed she...she starts hurting her self.”

“For fear harm will come to her family," Bilbo observed, watching as Bofur pulled a pack of cigarettes into view.

“The self-injury is due to her great emotional distress, of course! Oh,I see her toxicology report is negative across the board,” Bilbo read with a sigh, “In good physical health over all and…are you seriously going to do that?”

Bofur paused, the flame of his lighter an inch from the cigarette between his lips, and he blinked as if subtly confused.

“Still?” He asked, putting the lighter on the table, and pulling the cigarette from his mouth.

“Always,” Bilbo hummed with wry smile, “You can do that after we’re done.”

“Oh okay,” Bofur said, feigning a pout, “What else concerns ye?”

“Just the overall fact that, as I was saying, Sada is by all appearances a happy and healthy Dwarven child with the world at her feet! Yet no one has any idea why she attempted to kill her father! Not even you!”

Bofur shrugged just before folding his arms upon the table, studying Bilbo quietly, and then replied with a sigh:

“I think He’s abused her…brainwashed ‘er. What we ‘ave to do is get her to let go of ‘er fear and~”

“But what if it really wasn’t Thorin?”

Bofur smirked and shook his head as he thought over his words carefully.

“If he wasn’t…harming her in some way…I think she would have stabbed somebody else, ye know, the one truly responsible for her emotional state?”

“That makes sense but there’s also the very real and sad possibility that She’s very sick,” Bilbo debated as gently as he could, “I’d like to try something with her. It’s a bit outlandish but it helped me when I was dealing with a child whose illness I couldn’t put a finger on.”

Bofur arched an eyebrow, rubbed his goatee with a finger, and then asked: “Did it help to diagnose the child?”

“Yes,” Bilbo answered as he began to straighten the papers He’d been looking at, “He-uh-He had stabbed his little sister forty times. It was obvious from the get-go that He was suffering from something.

He denied it, committing the crime, though the evidence clearly pointed at him and his parents were fully supporting Him. Claiming that it just _had_ to have been an intruder…so I requested the boy be given a polygraph.”

“Bilbo!” Bofur scoffed, “Why do such a thing? In a court-of-law they’re completely inadmissible!”

“There was a reason I did so,” Bilbo explained, “I had the administrator ask him questions that he knew the honest answer to…but I instructed the boy to lie. He passed.”

Bofur gnawed on his bottom lip, realizing what Bilbo’s plan was, and he made an impatient sound just before her rose.

“An odd form of reverse psychology,” He observed with a sigh, “Lemme guess…after that ye got him medicated and then boom! He confessed to killing his own sister?”

“The baby lived,” Bilbo corrected with a sigh, “and he’s still in therapy for his personality disorder.”

“So…ye want to determine, first, if Sada is even a victim at all before ye do what I asked ye to do?” Bofur asked as he ran a hand over his face, “Fine!”

“Bo,” Bilbo called as the dwarf began to go, “This isn’t a blame game! Remember that, I cam here because you asked for my help, and that’s what I intend to do!”


	9. Meetings and Puzzles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo meets with Sada's father while Bofur visits a beloved relative.

“I’d go in with ye but, duty calls, and I have quite a few patients to see and then I’m off to see an old friend!”

Bilbo, exiting the cab, turned to Bofur and replied sweetly:

“We can talk later, if you’d like to, after I’m done here.”

Bofur smiled buoyantly, put on his own sunglasses, and gave an encouraging nod.

“Sounds good! Call or text me!”

After paying for his part of the cab fare, Bilbo stood on the busy sidewalk and watched the cab vanish into congested traffic before he turned and headed into the lobby of the massive skyscraper.

Walking up to the desk he was met by a scowling individual who immediately pointed at a clipboard.

“Sign in befer anythin’ else!” the dwarf barked, “But…aint Ye that therapist! The one Mr. Oakenshield told me about!”

“Child Psychiatrist,” Bilbo said as he finished signing in, “and I’ve a meeting with Mr. Oakenshield in fifteen minutes.”

“Aye, take the elevator to the 28th floor,” The guard instructed, “He’ll be in his office. Ye will meet his secretary befer ye get in there.”

“Thank you,” Bilbo said as he began heading toward the elevator, “have a good day sir and~”

“Ye think she’s off ‘er nut?”

Bilbo paused, turned on his bare heels, and eyed the guard curiously.

“You mean…your employers child?” He asked coolly, “Actually…no I don’t think she off her nut, not at all.”

The guard smirked and said with a wave of his hand: 

“Wouldn’t surprise me if she was…their whole family’s a bit loopy!”

 _‘ignorant jerk,’_ Bilbo thought as he turned around and headed toward the elevator, _‘hopefully he keeps his opinions to himself most of the time!’_

 

When he’d reached the pre-destined floor, of course, Thorin’s secretary first greeted Bilbo.

She was a bubbly young dwarf, Vila was her name, and she was so friendly Bilbo instantly grew tired of her.

“You just sit right there,” She’d squeaked, “and I’ll buzz Mr. Oakenshield to let him know you’re here!”

He’d waited well past the appointed time and, with a sigh, Bilbo decided it was best to busy himself lest he get caught up in an unwanted conversation with chatty secretary.

Bilbo took the extra moments to open his brief case and skim through the documents He’d felt were most important to bring.

First he read through Sada’s psychiatric profile, then studied the police reports, and then Bilbo decided to forget about the other paper work that would boggle Vila’s obviously delinquent mind and he closed his brief case with a satisfied sniff.

“I’d heard you people didn’t wear shoes,” Vila observed just as Thorin opened his door and stepped into view, “now I see that it’s really not a choice!”

 _’My word,’_ Bilbo thought as he rose and went to take Thorin’s extended hand, _’She’s like something out of B-listed film’_

“Thank Vila,” Thorin said as he stepped aside to let Bilbo into his grandiose office, “Don’t forget about those memos!”

Bilbo, immediately, noticed that Thorin’s arm was no longer confined in a sling and that the business magnate was rubbing at his still healing shoulder.

 _’Stubborn as ever,’_ He noted, _’This will not be an easy meeting._

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting,” Thorin offered as he took his seat, “But given the circumstances I’m having to fight off requests for interviews and all…wish the crap magazines would hound all those trashy Celebes like they usually do!”

Bilbo nodded; “Of course,” He confessed, “You’re aim is all about getting Sada the help she needs and~”

“and you need me to consent to that-eh-polygraph test…right?”

 _’Not going to be an easy meeting at all,’_ Bilbo thought again sadly, _’He does love a good fight!’_

“We can discuss that later,” Bilbo explained as he popped open his brief case and pulled out the needed document, “For now I just want to go over some things with you that came up during her stay in the hospital.”

“Shoot,” Thorin replied with a sigh as he picked up a bottle of prescription painkillers and popped off the lid, “I’ve got all day!”

“Well…first of all I’d like to discuss your overall relationship with Sada up to the point-uh-I mean up until she attacked you. How was your relationship with her going?”

“Fine,” Thorin answered as he washed down his pills with a glass of, to Bilbo’s astonishment, what looked like brandy.

“She was a Daddy’s girl through-and-through. Especially after…after Nola and Dis. We hardly ever argued and when we did it was about trivial stuff. Boys and such.”

“Were you aware of her cutting?” Bilbo asked, “The scars on her arms?”

Thorin sighed and bowed his head, as though deeply ashamed, and when he looked up he offered a weak nod.

“I noticed one night, over dinner, she was bleeding through her jumper. I talked to her later that night about it. Can you believe she claimed she’s not the one who did it?"

“That’s what she told the Doctor that treated her at the time,” Bilbo offered as he read down the first page before displacing it to concentrate on the second one, “She’s quite adamant that…that there’s some kind of monster about.”

“In me,” Thorin scoffed under his breath, “I don’t know-You’re the Doctor-but I’m starting to think Sada…I-I really am beginning to fear that she’s slipping away. Maybe I did something…why else say that I’m not who I am?”

“She hasn’t slipped away yet,” Bilbo pointed out, “The on-set of puberty, coupled with a massive loss, can be very traumatic for a young girl.”

“Puberty?” Thorin asked suddenly, “Sada’s not…well she is getting there but-but she hasn’t started any of that.”

“But,” Bilbo argued gently, “Fili told Bofur at the hospital he believed Sada had started her period…something about the maid finding bloody clothes. He even said you’d spoken to her about going to a doctor.”

“No!” Thorin sighed, picking up the glass and finishing it with a flourish, “I was talking about a doctor like you. You see she…Jesus I should have known!”

“Known what?” Bilbo asked, “What’s happened?”

“The blood?” Thorin answered with an arched eyebrow, “That was from her kitten…the maid found it in the hamper wrapped in a pillow case, decapitated, the morning after Fili had overheard her talking to her self.”

“She’s denied any wrong doing, hasn’t she?” Bilbo asked as he pulled out his own small notepad and pen, and scribbled something down.

“Yes…” Thorin admitted as he rubbed at his brow, “Like you know from all those papers you have…she keeps saying _He_ did it. Which would mean me I guess.”

“I see,” Bilbo mused as he continued to write, but he didn’t extend the conversation beyond that for several minutes.  
******************************************************************************************************************************  
“Here, just there, very good!”

The elderly dwarf grunted as he fit the puzzle piece into its rightful place, sighed, and looked at Bofur with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.

“Well done Bif!” Bofur praised with a grin, “Ye never cease to amaze me!”

“I’m better at piecing these things together than I am keeping the lot of you out of trouble,” Bifur remarked dryly as he sipped his stale coffee, “I’ve read the paper m’boy!”

Bofur smirked, resting his chin against his fist, and he offered a one-shoulder shrug.

“We’re workin’ on it,” He explained, “I got Bilbo on it now and~”

“That fellow ye were all starry-eyed about?” Bifur asked as he began to pull apart his latest victory, “The one from university.”

“Aye,” Bofur confirmed, “If I can’t help Sada I’m sure he can.”

“That whole family needs help,” Bifur grunted just as an orderly entered with a tray full of medicines in tiny plastic cups, “They’re marked you know!”

“Marked?” Bofur asked with a chuckle, though he instantly felt a chill run up his spine, “Why do ye say that?”

“The more powerful you are,” Bifur explained as he took a tiny cup from the orderly, “The more certain you are to fall into darkness…I fear for that whole family!”

Bofur’s cell phone buzzed and, grateful to be distracted, he pulled it free from his worn leather jacket quickly.

He was elated to see that it was a text from Bilbo and, just as Bifur took his daily dosage of medicine with a small cup of water, he quickly flipped his phone open.

_Dinner…7 o’clock…The Arkenstone…important…B.B._

“I’ve gotta go Bif,” Bofur explained as he tucked his phone away, “But I’ll be back next week a’right?”

“Be careful,” Bifur warned as he began tossing the puzzle pieces back into the box, “These aren’t safe times m’boy!”


	10. New Discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo interviews Fili and is troubled to realize he's search for answers is far from over.

“So…you didn’t want to be a psychiatrist when you went to university?”

Bilbo, seated on a park bench, shook his head while he watched Sada tossing picked flowers into the pond just a few feet before them.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do with my self,” the hobbit confessed, “I went at the behest of family…and I really just thought I’d coast through on my trust fund until the very end. But then I met Bofur.”

“Is that why the two of you opened up your own place?” Sada pressed as she leaned back on her heels and stuck her hands in her coat pockets, “How come you went back to Hobbiton?”

Bilbo cleared his throat, not wanting to divulge the ugly past to such an innocent child, but he knew that her trust in him was crucial in solving the great puzzle she’d become.

“It’s just, after some time, I finally went through with my long-held desire to go back home and do some good there.”

It was a partial truth, perhaps he would tell her more in the future, but Dr. Baggins didn’t dare tell her about Bofur’s binge drinking and their heated arguments.

Most of all he certainly didn’t want to divulge his own mistake that he’d committed so long ago.

“Is it…um…Fili said you and my Uncle were boyfriends,” Sada revealed with a cough, “That you too had been together since your time at the University.”

Bilbo chuckled shyly, ruffled his golden curls, and gave a quick nod.

“Does that bother you?” He asked casting the young dwarf a concerned gaze, “Is that why you haven’t really told me anything?”

Sada frowned and dug the toe of her sneaker into the dirt as she looked away and thought to herself for a few moments.

“No,” She mumbled as she began to gnaw on a single fingernail, “I actually think it’s cool…but I have told you everything!”

“Sada,” Bilbo started, reaching into his pocket and silencing his cell phone just as it started to ring, “We’ve only just glossed over certain things and~”

“Will you tell the judge?”

Bilbo sighed and gave another shrug; “I’m not sure what to tell him, right now, I’m still piecing it together. We’ve got some time before we have to go and see him…and it’s very important that you trust me enough to tell me things that you’ve yet to me.”

“So if I don’t…in the end…I won’t go home? Even though I’ve told the truth?”

Before Bilbo could reply, the distant whirring of bike tires took his gaze from the child, and toward the bicycling dwarf that headed straight toward him.

Bilbo rose while Fili dismounted, smiled faintly as he watched the two cousins embrace, and then he adopted his most peaceful expression when the university student at last met his patient eyes.

“Where’s Uncle Thorin?” Fili asked, one arm draped around Sada’s shoulders, “Shouldn’t he be here by now?”

“His assistant had the secretary call,” Bilbo explained as he looked at his wrist watch, “He had a business meeting before this. Shouldn’t be too much longer.”

~~~~****~~~~

After Thorin and the social service agent finally arrived and whisked a gleeful Sada away, in her father’s high-priced and vintage vehicle, Bilbo led Fili to the quiet café just a half-mile walk from where they’d met up.

“I do hope I haven’t kept you from your studies, believe me, this is the time when your nose must be thoroughly smashed into a text book.”

“If you believed that I wasn’t-in some way-essential to building a profile of Sada…you wouldn’t have asked to interview me.”

Bilbo smirked, Fili was smart and always had been, and after he’d gestured for Fili to take his seat outside the front of the quaint little bistro He wasted no more time.

“It would help, honestly, if you could tell me some things, primarily, about that night you heard her talking to her self.”

“What else?”

Bilbo busied with the waiter then, ordering a single cup of tea and a croissant, and then he cleared his throat after the waiter had left.

“Your relationship with her.”

Fili chuckled dryly, muttered something under his breath, and then said with a sigh:

“She’s being abused,” He observed as he slouched in his chair, “that’s at least what you think…right?”

“I think it would be easier if I asked the questions,” Bilbo confessed as he shifted in his uncomfortable wicker chair, “I’m asking about your relationship with her. Nothing else.”

Fili smirked and ran his fingers through his long hair; “Typical,” He said first, then after some thought he changed his words.

“Close. Our mother’s were taken from us at the same time. Plus, as you know, I’ve been around her since she was a little baby…same as Kili. I was there for her more than Thorin was after he made the shocking decision to have her brought back from that hoity-toity boarding school!”

“You sound bitter,” Bilbo pointed out as the waiter approached with his order, “Is it…difficult for you?”

Fili snorted and eyed Bilbo with a look of disbelief.

“What port are you trying to steer this boat into?” Fili asked with an arched eyebrow, “Get on with it!”

“I think you know more than you’re letting on!” Bilbo pointed out gently, buttering his croissant, “and I find it rather odd that you’ve such bitterness toward an Uncle whom has cared for you ever since your parents…were so cruelly taken from you.”

“Bilbo,” Fili sighed, bowing his head and studying his tarnished sneakers, “I love my uncle…I do! Yes, I am bitter, but only because he’s so…professional with us. It’s like…we’re all little lost puppies that he feels he has to take care of financially because we wandered into his backyard!”

Bofur has said almost the same thing, albeit, with quite a different analogy. 

Still, at that moment, Bilbo’s concern as to whether or not Fili was a guilty party was diminished.

He most definitely didn’t like Thorin’s parenting but other than that, seeing the worry in Fili’s blood-shot eyes, he was just a young dwarf trying to create his life while trying to keep together an already shattered family!

“You’ve taken up the role of the father,” Bilbo pointed out, and Fili’s pain seemed to vanish, “To the best of your abilities, I mean, that’s why-I think-you’ve kept quiet about some things. Am I right?”

Fili sighed again, reached into his jean pocket, and pulled fourth his own pack of cigarettes.

“Yes,” Fili groaned as he put the cigarette between his lips, and after he snapped a flame from his lighter he admitted:

“She’s been acting odd for sometime now. Even Kili, believe it or not, He-uh-gets nervous when she’s around him.”

“Because of the kitten?” Bilbo inquired, “and because she has late night conversations?” 

“I found out about the kitten yesterday,” Fili confessed, “Sorry for the confusion.” 

“To answer your question, I really thought it was a case of a little girl inventing someone to take up the…paternal role that is definitely lacking in her life. Sort of like an imaginary friend but…obviously I was wrong.”

Bilbo smirked and took a sip of tea before offering: “A child’s imagination is a hard thing to understand…even for the most seasoned of professionals! Tell me, please, did you hear any of the conversation?”

“Some,” Fili confessed through a haze of blue smoke, “She-Sada-was pleading with…whoever it was she invented, she called him Archer, She kept saying she wouldn’t do it over and over…then I headed back to my room to finish an essay.”

“After that…did the behavior get worse?” Bilbo inquired, though he wasn’t surprised when Fili nodded in the affirmative, and he pushed his half-eaten croissant away.

“She started hurting her self, self-isolated, she got very clingy to Thorin and~”

“Wait, what?” Bilbo interrupted, “You mean she…actually got closer to Thorin?”

Fili exhaled another cloud of smoke and nodded: 

“Yeah…well no, not closer, she’s just always worried about him...followed him everywhere!” 

“I see,” Bilbo said just before emptying his cup of tea, “That’s…quite interesting.”


	11. More Questions & One New Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is against them and, while Thorin and Bilbo await Sada at the Erebor Police Station, Bilbo asked Thorin more unanswered questions and begins to suspect many things.

“I’m not going!” 

“Sada, honey, please it’ll only take a few moments!”

“I want to go see Daddy! You always take me to see him when it’s Saturday!”

Bofur sighed as he leaned back into the backseat of the cab and pleaded gently:

“Yer Daddy is inside. The test will only take a few minutes and then ye will see yer Da’ I promise. Now, please Sada, Bilbo is waiting inside!”

A tear scarred Sada’s flushed cheek as she looked up into Bofur’s concerned eyes, she sniffled, and at last exited the cab slowly.

“No body believes me!” Sada whimpered as Bofur clasped her little hand in his, “Everyone is just trying to get Daddy in trouble!” 

“We’re just trying to make sure that you and yer Daddy are both a’right,” Bofur corrected as gently and sincerely as he could, “Tha’s all!”

As it had been for sometime, they were met by the social service agent, a prudish and sour looking old woman whom tenaciously eyed any of Sada’s immediate family with disdain and suspicion.

“Ten minutes late,” She revealed flatly, and Bofur offered a shrug and a chuckle.

“Ye know how traffic is here in Erebor!”

The woman, to Bofur’s private pleasure, sneered at his unbreakable optimism and jerked her head; “Inside,” She ordered, “Mr. Oakenshield is still speaking with Dr. Baggins in another room!”

Sada squeezed Bofur’s hand and looked up at him, her eyes pleading, and after placing a simple kiss atop her head the dwarf regretfully led the child inside the Police Station.  
*****************************************************************************************************************************

“You should have been more informative!”

“I was!”

“You said nothing about Sada being clingy, afraid that something was going to happen you!”

Thorin groaned, popped a couple more aspirin, and when he’d worked his shoulder for a moment he confessed through clenched teeth:

“I didn’t want…I didn’t want to make things worse for her!”

“I’m having to start all over again!” Bilbo exclaimed as he sat behind the borrowed desk while the business tycoon seated himself upon it and glared impatiently at the hobbit.

“Don’t you realize that if it’s determined that Sada is…out of sorts, that she’ll be taken away from me?” Thorin demanded after a silence had passed between them, “I though Bofur brought you in because you could help us sort all of this out for _her_ benefit!”

“Yes!” Bilbo confessed curtly, “I am here to help but right now…her future…it’s quite uncertain at this point because I keep getting so bloody tangled up!”

Thorin moaned and bowed his head as he thought.  


“She’d…not long before it happened? She was like my shadow! I even woke up every morning for a week to find her in the bed with me! When I asked her if it had anything to do with the kitten she would just throw a fit!”

“How did you get her to stop sneaking into the bed with you?” Bilbo inquired, and he pulled out a notepad and pen, “Did she say she was doing so out of fear for your safety?”

To his growing concern Bilbo watched as Thorin pulled out his bottle of aspirin once more and struggled to pop off the lid.

“She said she was just scared! It got so bad that not even grounding her worked in the end! I had to start locking my door!”

“Why didn’t you consider therapy at the time?” Bilbo inquired as he scribbled something down, “It looks like she-I have to say-that she could have possibly been-uh-planning to attack you while you slept. Trying to manipulate you in a way.”

“If that were so,” Thorin said flatly and in a low voice, “Don’t you think she would have attacked me sooner?”

Bilbo nodded, silently admitting that Thorin’s suggestion had some rationality to it, and then sighed as he dared to risk it all and asked:

“Was there…was Sada exhibiting any curiosity about sex?”

Thorin grimaced and shook his head so violently that strands of his hair fell free from his ponytail.

“Never!” Thorin gagged with a shudder; “I’ll do whatever I can to prove nothing that sick went on!”

 _’No need,’_ Bilbo thought as he let Thorin calm down before questioning him further, _’I had a hunch you weren’t that much of a beast…but if not you or anyone else in the household…’_

“It’s my fault, either way you look at it, it really is!”

Bilbo’s hand froze, his writing paused, and he brought his eyes up to the devastated dwarf.

“What do you mean?” Bilbo inquired, his mind running through all that he had researched about Sada’s paternal ancestry in weeks prior to that very moment.

“I wanted to help her myself,” Thorin confessed softly, his fierce blue eyes becoming heavy with sadness, “I thought…I drug her back home after Nola’s death so fast! She hadn’t wanted to leave her school but I thought it was best to keep her close. I thought that I _really_ need to be there for her!

I’m not a professional, like you, but when she started getting strange I just shrugged it off-stupidly-attributed it to-eh-I believe it’s some kind of anxiety disorder. Y’know? That one thing that happens when a sudden death in family comes up?”

“You mean _SAD ___?” Dr. Baggins inquired, quite impressed by Thorin’s own observation, and his mind began to fathom a new explanation as he pocketed his pen and notepad.

Just then, before Bilbo could ask anymore of Thorin, Bofur burst through the double doors and surveyed the buzzing police station until he at last spotted the hobbit and dwarf.

Just as Thorin rose, offering a faint smile to his child as she rushed fourth, Bilbo interjected politely with an extended hand.

“May I see that aspirin bottle? I’ve a dull headache myself!”

Sweeping Sada into his strong arms, hugging his daughter close, Thorin hesitated and cast a nervous glance at Bofur and the sneering agent that approached them.

"Oh,” Bilbo chuckled after being satisfied with Thorin’s response, “Never mind! It was rude of me to ask!”

“I understand,” the social service agent squawked, “that a detective will be with you and Sada as the test is being administered?”

Bilbo nodded, noting how stiff Sada became in her father’s arms, and nodded at someone behind Bofur and the wooden female dwarf, “Yes…Det. Medved will be accompanying us!”

Detective Medved observed all of them with a look of indifference, but saved an accusatory glance for Thorin, before pointing a finger.

“We’ll be doin’ it in there,” He explained, “I hope it won’t take long…I’ve got some other things that need tendin’ to!”


	12. Disorders, Diseases, or Deceptions?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the startling results come back from Sada's test Bofur and Bilbo argue about many possibilities just before Sada makes a startling confession.

“It can’t be! She’s not! She doesn’t fit the profile!”

“Bofur…she passed it with flying colors! I’ve never seen that happen before!”

From where he sat, in the study of his large apartment, Bofur eyed the folder Bilbo had placed before him only moments after arriving.

“She’s not a sociopath!”

“Her heart rate never increased when I asked her the most important questions!” Bilbo argued, “I’ve spoken to the administrator of the test and he confers what I fear! Bofur, I know, that you love her very much but you have to accept~”

“Perhaps…what if it’s a mental illness and not a personality disorder?”

Bilbo quickly swallowed His groan of irritation back down, sat on the corner of Bofur’s desk, and waited for his former partner to go on.

“Depression,” Bofur pointed, “Growing and becoming much, much worse after the death of her Mother and Aunt that finally, in a deep psychosis, she attacked her father under the belief that~”

“Surely you aren’t suggesting she failed to recognize her father? Those cases are quite rare!”

Bofur frowned at Bilbo and for a moment thought about tossing the hobbit from his home.

“It would be another way of explaining why she did what she did!” He snapped, “Sada isn’t a superficial, unfeeling little troll!”

“She’s sick!” Bilbo offered, poking the desktop with a single finger to emphasize his point, “Bofur…She either truly, truly believes the person she attacked _wasn’t_ her father…or she’s just…being deceitful.”

Bofur groaned, buried his face in his hands, and took a deep breath while Bilbo smirked and rose from where he’d been sitting.

“Sociopathy, as you and I both know, is said to be a result of nurture…the environment around the individual. Let’s face it Bo…She’s not had the healthiest of childhood’s and her family history is rather dark.”

“I aint arguin’ that she’s had it hard,” Bofur argued from behind his hands, and then when he dropped them on top of the desk he explained with a sigh:

“But there would have been signs she was in need…just like there had been with Thorin’s father and Grandfather long before they both took their lives!”

Bilbo nodded, recalling the information he’d gathered for his files, regarding the mental states of Sada’s paternal relatives before they’d both flung themselves from roof of their own skyscraper at different times. 

“Or the symptoms are just now developing. That would…fall into the category of Psychopathy. But I don’t see any similarities between Sada and her late relatives. She’s very much different.” 

Bofur fingered a pen that lay upon his desk, looking exhausted and confused, and Bilbo could not help but come around the desk and wrap his arms around Bofur’s broad shoulders.

“It’s not your fault,” Bilbo explained as he pressed his bare cheek against Bofur’s bearded one, “This isn’t like before!”

Bofur nodded, pulled Bilbo’s arms away, and stood with another sigh.

“So…what’s to be done?” He inquired, going over to small refrigerator and opening it; “It seems ye won’t be here much longer owing to the fact that you’ve got all that ye need now.”

Bilbo smirked, noting that Bofur was still as stubborn ever, and he shrugged just as he explained:

“I’ll have a few more sessions with Sada, build up my report, and then submit it to the courts before the trial. But…you should know that I’m going to suggest that Sada remain in your custody before then.”

“Of course,” Bofur agreed as he took a long pull from a bottle of water, “She’s got to recover from what she did-admit to what she's done-so that would mean keeping her and Thorin apart fer now.”

“No,” Bilbo sighed as he leaned his back against the desk, “I mean…th-that perhaps she should be left in your care permanently.”

Bofur, just about to take another sip from his water bottle, paused as he studied Bilbo for moment, then he calmly and quietly re-capped his bottle and put it back into the fridge.

“Why?” He asked as he came to stand in front of the hobbit, “What are ye worried about?”

Bilbo took a moment, enjoying the smell of the dwarf’s cologne, and as he crossed his arms he explained with shrug:

“Thorin, recently I noticed, is constantly popping pills and his secretary tells me he’s been drinking a lot of Brandy during work hours.”

Bofur snorted and shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, smirked, and explained:

“Stress of the situation could explain the drinkin’, plus his still recovering from his wounds and probably has a prescription for pain meds…but I doubt he’s drinkin’ at all to tell ye the truth. He hates Brandy!”

“Either way,” Bilbo countered, “Just as Sada needs time to heal…so does he and I’m going to suggest that Sada remain in your home until the courts deem it safe for her to be left back in Thorin’s care.”

“No! You can’t do that!” Shouted an angry, strained voice behind the to psychiatrists.

Bofur startled and spun around while Bilbo’s shoulder’s dropped and he felt a deep concern rest in his heart.

“Sada,” Bofur said as he gather himself and kept his voice calm, “Ye know ye should knock.”

“I wanna go home!” Sada bellowed, “I miss Daddy and my cousins and they miss me!”

“Of course they miss ye lass,” Bofur offered as he approached his emotional niece slowly, “Right now…it’s only one of many suggestions. All of which are being considered because we want ye to be alright.”

“I am!” Sada squealed, stamping her foot, “You just think I’m crazy like Grandpa!”

“No,” Bilbo interjected just then, “We think that you need time…just like Thorin and~”

“It wasn’t Daddy!” Sada screamed, and she slapped Bofur’s hand away when it reached out to grip her shoulder, “I know who it was! I know who it was that I stabbed and is wasn’t my Dad!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh! Trying so hard not to go too far adrift where mental illnesses' and personality disorders are concerned but oh-my-lordy it's complicated....so glad this is non-fiction!!!


	13. A shattered Mirror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fili checks on Thorin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did Ya'll miss me? :-D

“Uncle Thorin! Open the door! What happened? You woke up Kili and now he’s flipping out!”

Fili pounded his fist against the locked bedroom door, torn between fright and fury, since hearing the great crash come from his Uncle’s lavish bedroom.

Kili was sitting cross-legged on the marble floor behind his older brother; rocking back and fourth and staring blankly at the adjacent wall.

The bedroom door sprang open, Fili took a quick step backward just as Kili gripped the sides of his head and began shaking it side to side as he let out frustrated sobs.

Thorin, his eyes narrowed and full of anger, looked over Fili’s shoulder and sneered.

“Get it back to bed,” He ordered in a voice that seemed not to belong to him, “The mirror over the dresser fell…it was nothing!”

Fili tensed, clenching his fists, and just before he spoke he smelled the strong alcohol upon his Uncle’s breath.

“You better hope they see past all of this,” Fili warned, “The courts I mean…no amount of money is gonna make anyone forget the fact that your acting…really weird lately!”

Thorin chuckled, coldly, and after clicking his tongue as he thought said smugly:

“I really don’t give a fuck how it goes!”

With that he slammed the door and left Fili to tend to his little brother.

 _’So glad I’m moving out next month,_ Fili thought as he struggled to get Kili to stand up with him, _’I’ll take Sada in after I’ve gotten Kili settled into my apartment!’_

Fili sighed, at last getting his brother to his feet, and His mind queried many things as he guided Kili back to bed.

It was the alcohol. The pain pills, he assumed, had to also be playing their part in his Uncle’s odd behavior.

As the days had gone on Fili had observed the stresses bear down harder and harder upon his already frustrated Uncle.

He spent most of his time at his office, hardly slept, and when Fili saw him the two of them hardly spoke.

Of all of them, of course, he suffered Sada’s absence the worst.

“In you go!” Fili said as he guided Kili into his bedroom and helped the young dwarf into bed, “Don’t worry…it’s okay now. Do you want these?”

As usual the autistic sibling took the headphones that Fili offered and secured them over his ears, waiting, until His elder pushed the play button on the stereo.

Kili at last quieted, with Bach booming in his ears, and curled into a fetal position before completely covering himself with his thick blanket.

Fili smirked when Kili hid himself beneath the blanket and decided that, for now, he would retire to the study and work on his essay.

It was a ruse of course, the essay could wait, if anything he’d sit behind the computer desk and continue to worry and wonder.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur and Bilbo meet before going to see the judge.

“You said it was archer…who is archer, Sada?”

Sada wiped her eyes with the tissue Bilbo had offered and only replied with a weak shrug and a sniffle.

Bilbo, having borrowed Bofur’s office for the day, gnawed his bottom lip and stared at the clock that hung above the closed door across from where he sat.

Their hour was almost up, Thorin and the agent would be by to whisk the child away, and he would be at a total loss.

“He wasn’t so bad…not at first.”

Bilbo raised his eyebrows, clasped his hands together, and asked delicately:

“You mean your friend?”

Sada nodded.

“He just…wanted to take care of me in the beginning,” The young girl whispered, “But…then he started to talk about Mama and Aunt Dis…”

“Why did He want to take care of you?” Bilbo inquired, ignoring what Sada had just explained, “You mean…like a big brother?”

“He said he could be a better father,” Sada sighed, “That He’d always cared more about mama and me…he said Mama didn’t need to die the way she did.”

Bilbo’s eyes widened and he stood on his feet while he observed the little dwarrow intently.

“Sada…” He started to say, but grew silent when a knock came at the door, and Bofur carefully entered his office.  
*******************************************************************************************************************************   
“So he dumped the pills?”

“Tha’s what Fili told me the other day…it hasn’t made his mood any better of course. Ye ask me? Fili picked the right time to move him and Kili out!”

“How is Kili handling it?”

Bofur snorted and lit his cigarette while ignoring Bilbo’s curious glance, and after exhaling a puff of white smoke, He explained:

“He anxious…but it helps that Fili commits so much time to ‘im, o’course, that and Thorin brings him with when He goes to see Sada.”

“But Fili is still concerned that Thorin is...falling apart, right?”

Before he could respond, after taking another long pull from his cigarette, the hobbit reached over and took the cigarette from between his fingers.

He was stunned, stopping short of his intended complaint, when Bilbo casually took his own puff.

Flicking the butt of the cigarette away, watching the ash and embers flutter away in the crisp wind, Bilbo closed his eyes and took a very deep breath.

“I…When we meet with the judge…I don’t think it will go well at all!” Bilbo mumbled as he slowly opened his eyes and looked nervously at his colleague.

“How bad is it?” Bofur asked as He felt his spine chill.

“Bad,” Bilbo said as he refused to look up at his one time lover, “Worse than even I thought.”


	15. Decisions & Disappointments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo shocks his friends in the Shire and Thorin loses his temper during a meeting with the Judge.

“Are…Bilbo this is very odd! Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“It’s what I have to do,” Bilbo said into the cell phone, “She’s been found innocent by reason of disease or mental defect…I have to stay on to give her continued treatment because it’s the right thing to do.”

The person on the other end of the line sighed, there was a sound of papers being shuffled, and at last Bilbo’s colleague asked:

“What about the patients here?”

“There are other psychiatrists in Hobbiton…you can refer them, can’t you?”

“There’s no guarantee that any of them will take any of the referrals I offer!” 

“It’s inconvenient, of course, but it’s the right thing to do,” Bilbo chuckled, “and I’m not saying I’ll be here permanently.”

“Where will you be staying?” Asked the hobbit's business partner, “From what you’ve told me in previous calls you’ve been holed up in a fancy hotel for the last four months!”

“I’ll be staying on,” Bilbo confessed, “At the hotel for now. I don’t know…I might get an efficiency later on…it all depends really.”

“How is our dear old friend, Dr. Khairyn, by the way?”

Bilbo tittered, began to gather the needed documents, and then quipped into the phone:

“Relative or no…don’t forget that you’re only just an intern…it isn’t wise to give cheek!”

The other person, a younger hobbit and the long time secretary of Dr. Baggins, snorted from his own end and before hanging up pointed out:

“I’m just worried you’ll end up where you did last time. Grief-stricken and pedantic!”

 

“Hard to find good help,” Bilbo announced to his guest, whom bounded into his hotel room without knocking, “Though, I confess, Merry is a favorite relative.”

He’d anticipated one of his trademark jests but, instead, Bilbo stiffened when he saw the blood-shot eyes and disheveled demeanor of the dwarf whom quietly waited for him to load his brief case.

“Bo,” Bilbo asked as he clicked his brief case shut, “What’s wrong? Is Sada alright?”

“Fine!” Bofur snapped uncharacteristically, running his fingers through his loose hair, “I’m just…I’ve got to be somewhere soon.”

“Alright,” Bilbo offered, relieved to see the tension ease from around the dwarf’s eyes, “Let’s be off then!”

******************************************************************************************************************************  
If ever there was a time Bofur Khairyn wanted to punch his ex brother-in-law, enjoying the scrape of his knuckles against the other’s teeth, it was most decidedly now.

“Six months!” Thorin growled, slamming his fist down on the judge’s desk, “Another six months!”

“We’ve only just scratched the service,” Bilbo moaned, “We’ve gotten Sada comfortable enough to reveal some things. But not enough to convince me that she’s truly accepted responsibility for what happened!”

“And the courts agree,” The judge pointed out before Thorin could argue, “It’s really non-negotiable Thorin and I believe it’s for the best for all involved.”

‘Balin,” Thorin grumbled at the white-haired judge, “I know you’ve a job to do and I appreciate your concern but Sada belongs at home with me! Please! I’m not…I-I’m not afraid of her.”

“Thorin,” Judge Balin Medved counseled, “Yer…Bilbo and Bofur both have made it very clear to me that ye were drinking durin’ yer work hours and there was mention of prescription pill abuse…it’s not just yer safety I’m taking into account. I’m sorry M’boy.”

“I stopped,” Thorin scoffed looking angrily at the dwarf and hobbit that stood next to the judge’s desk, “For her! It was the stress! But I’ve stopped completely!”

“I wanna be sure ye stay that way,” Balin admitted with a sniff, “Sada…This imaginary friend of hers…”

Bofur’s cell phone blared to life and he quickly looked apologetically at Judge Medved before he left the office.

“You think it’s my fault?” Thorin inquired his piercing blue eyes studying Bilbo then, “You think it’s my fault that she’s claiming this friend of hers is somehow responsible for her current state?”

“I’m not sure,” Bilbo confessed gently, “I’m not sure of anything but…right now she needs time. I’m sorry Thorin. But it’s not like-I mean-You will have visitations like always!”

Thorin looked at his attorney; the dwarf shrank back in his chair, and offered only a curt nod.

“Fine!” Thorin barked, “But I want to-at least-take her out to dinner tonight if it will be alright. Sada was…she really thought she’d be coming home with me after all of this!”


	16. A devestating Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur is put under even more stress and might possibly make a terrible decision.

After He’d watched Sada crawl into Her father’s waiting car, fighting his urge to spit out several insults at Thorin, Bofur wasted no time and hailed a cab.

“Wait!” Bilbo shouted just as Bofur had climbed into the car, “Wait! Where are you off to? I was hoping to discuss some things with you!”

“Later,” Bofur spat with a wave of his hand, “I gotta go!”

“What?” Bilbo said with disbelieving laugh, “But Bo…this is very important!”

“I feckin’ said later!” Bofur growled, nearly slamming Bilbo’s fingers in the taxi door, as the cab sped away.

“What the hell!” Bilbo exclaimed as he watched the cab disappear into the unbearable Erebor traffic.

Bofur was a mess, Sada was in tears the last he’d seen her, and Thorin was enraged!

‘How the hell am I to help her,’ Bilbo thought with a sigh as he decided to walk back to his hotel, ‘When no one seems to want to help her or themselves?’  
******************************************************************************************************************************

“You worthless excuse for a shrink! Look at him! Look what happened to him!”

The slap landed so hard against his cheek that tears burned at Bofur’s eyes and he very nearly toppled over an unused wheelchair that blocked the narrow corridor.

“My baby!” the woman shrieked, “They say he might never wake up! This is your entire fault! I-I should’ve known better than to bring him to you!”

Bofur, rubbing his cheek, ignored the sniveling woman and approached the glass that separated them from the room in which the boy lay.

He was unconscious and hooked to a respirator as well as several other pieces of elaborate medical equipment.

Just…lying there.

“Joseph,” Bofur whispered, “Oh…ye poor boy.”

“If-if you would have only listened to what I wanted…what I knew was best! This wouldn’t have happened!”

He’d been given a lethal dose, or rather; his system had been overloaded with large doses of his medication.

That’s what Victoria had told him earlier that day, when he’d received the first of many calls, and now the poor boy lay in a coma before his very eyes.

An avoidable Gran Mal Seizure had happened, his fool of a mother had been giving him twice the prescribed dosage for days, and now the one who should truly be suffering continued to berate the devastated psychiatrist from behind him.

“I’ll sue! Do you hear me you miserable, alcoholic, fraud! I’ll sue!”

“GO RIGHT AHEAD YE CHILD KILLIN’ CUNT!” Bofur bellowed as he spun on his heels and jammed a finger under the startled woman’s chin.

“Go right ahead and take me fer every last penny!” Bofur dared, “Because yer gonna need all the help ye can get once child services gets wind of what ye did if only to keep yer bloody country club membership!”

Finally aware that he’d drawn several stares, and the company of two waiting security guards, Bofur lowered his finger and growled through gritted teeth:

“Ye should be ashamed of yer self…Yer baby was just sick but now…”

Bofur snorted, offered his apologies to the tense staff, and made no protest when the security guards followed him to the doors leading out of the hospital.

Bofur stood, his eyes downcast and his heart pounding in his ears, and he struggled to regain his composure.

‘First Sada…now Joseph,’ He thought as tears pricked at his eyes, ‘It’s falling apart all over again!’

He’d thought at first to go to his office, pull out his files on Joseph, but then Bofur sniffled and looked up and down the sidewalk.

Reaching into his pocket, fingering it for a moment, Bofur pulled out the chip and studied its front. 

Turning it over he smirked, looked up and down the bustling sidewalk once more, and decided to head to his brother’s restaurant just as he flicked the plastic coin into the street where it was instantly crushed under the wheel of a passing car.


	17. Chapter 17: Despression and Terror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur nearly relapses.
> 
> While Sada and Thorin go out to dinner.

“Do you think they will let me go home? Sooner than six months I mean?”

Thorin sipped his water, though he really desired any number of alcoholic beverages instead, and offered his child an uncertain smile.

“Perhaps,” He lied, “It’s not just…well baby they want to be sure that everyone will be alright.”

“They can’t know that until they let me go home,” Sada argued with a pout, “and things have been going good! You’re not like the way you usually are and I know that…that I did something stupid.”

Thorin was flooded with great many things at that moment; guilt, relief, devastation, but most of all curiosity.

“What do you mean that I’m not like I used to be?” He asked after signaling the waiter, “I’ve really not changed all that much. I just miss you and your cousins.”

“Th-that’s not what I mean,” Sada confessed as she fingered her fork, “I mean that…w-well Archer hasn’t~”

“Who?” Thorin asked as the waiter arrived and prepared to take their order.  
********************************************************************************************************************************  
Dr. Khairyn burst into his apartment with a growl, tossed his coat onto the couch, and slammed his door so violently that several shelved items quivered dangerously. 

“One miserable glass,” He seethed as he stomped through the living room and flicked on his kitchen light, “One glass of whiskey was all I wanted ye fat excuse fer a brother!”

After rummaging through his fridge, finding no salvation there, Bofur sat at the kitchen table with a huff. 

“Please!” Bofur recalled Bombur pleading, “Go on home Bo! Don’t do this, alright? Just go home and get some sleep!”

He could have gone to any one of the several pubs in Erebor but, honestly, news traveled fast and his was a familiar face.

Besides that fact, Bofur knew, it wouldn’t do to let himself be seen bawling his eyes out over a glass of liquor.

But what else was there to do?

Bed seemed his only option. 

‘What’s that gonna do?’ Bofur wondered as he rose, ‘Everythin’ will be the same, if not worse, in the mornin’.’

Bofur sighed, just as he rose, when a sharp rapping echoed through his apartment.

It had to be Bombur, of course, or maybe it was Thorin bringing Sada back for the night.

It wouldn’t surprise the psychiatrist at all if Thorin had decided a business call was more important than his own daughter!

“I’m comin’!” Bofur spat as he stomped toward the door, “Just gimme a bloody second!”

More than ready to argue, Bofur flung the door open, but He choked on his words and stood in awe as Dr. Baggins observed him with raised eyebrows.

“Well at least I know you haven’t been drinking,” the hobbit offered with smirk, “if you had been you would’ve punched your fist through the door!”


	18. Chapter 18: Persistance and Passion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo comforts Bofur in his own way while Dwalin explains his suspicions and finding to Gloin.

“Why are ye even botherin’ lad? The case is closed! Leave it Dwalin!”

“Call it curiosity and nothin’ more,” the other Detective growled without looking up from the open file that lay upon his already cluttered desk, “I don’t think things are all said and done with tha’ family!”

“Didn’t you say you and Thorin used to be old friends?” Detective Riche inquired, “That you and yer brother Balin grew up with him?”:

“I grew up with ‘im,” Dwalin corrected, “Balin was much older ye numbskull!”

“So…what? Ye think there’s more to it than some poor little girl with-eh-problems?”

“Lemme tell ye somethin’,” Dwalin sighed as he closed the aged file, “I’ve known Thorin fer awhile-or I did-we aint talked fer a long time but…that whole silly family seems cursed! Look here!”

Gloin took the offered file and opened it after being eyed impatiently by his young partner.

“Oh,” Gloin sighed, “it’s Nola and Dis’ accident report, eh?”

“It happened not long after Frerin disappeared,” Dwalin pointed out as he grabbed for another file, “His case is still open…well it’s not been solved and he’s presumed dead but don’t ye remember? The fallin’ out they had?”

“Oooh,” Gloin mused as he closed the file, “You mean when Thorin decided that Oakenshield Enterprises would be better of without his lil brother’s services?”

“Keep reading! He was fired exactly six months before that horrid accident that killed those two women!”

And, not just that,” Dwalin confessed, “It’s been awhile but I recall Thorin tellin’ me tha’-after his Dad decided to take a swan dive off of ‘is own building-He and Frerin had a terrible bust-up o’er the will their Da’ left behind!”

“Dear lord,” Gloin sighed, “Dwalin…it’s like yer describing a really bad cop movie!”

“No, no!” Dwalin argued as Gloin handed back the file, “I knew Frerin as well! Do ye know what Frerin’s nickname was?”

“I’ve a feeling yer about to tell me!” Gloin snorted as he leaned back in his chair and waited.

“It was Archer!” Dwalin declared as he slapped one large hand upon his desk and let out a triumphant laugh.  
******************************************************************************************************************************  
“Here,” Bilbo offered the steaming cup, “It’ll ease those nerves.”

“It’s got brandy in it then?” He tried to joke, and chuckled when Bilbo smacked his shoulder gently.

“You know what it is!” Bilbo explained as he took a seat next to where the dwarf sat upon the couch, “It’s that tea you always drink when times are hard.”

“Aye,” Bofur sighed, “Shoulda thought about tha’ first!”

Bilbo hummed, sipped from his own cup, and after taking a moment he explained:

“The boy wasn’t your fault. You know that, you did everything in your power, the mother is to blame.”

“Still doesn’t stop the thought,” Bofur sighed, leaning forward and setting the cup down on his coffee table.

“I know,” Bilbo agreed, “You’ve always taken things hard but…I am proud of you.”

“Proud?” Bofur asked with a scoff, “Of what? Not only did I almost knock the shit out of some idiotic woman but I almost blew three years of sobriety!”

“But you didn’t,” Bilbo pointed out with sly smile, “Instead you came home the instant Bombur dared to deny you any alcohol and…and you didn’t get violent when I came over.”

Bofur sighed again and buried his head in his hands, listening as Bilbo set his own cup down and moved closer to the dwarf.

“You’re still just as strong as I am remember,” Bilbo confessed, and he rubbed Bofur’s back with one hand while gripping the dwarf’s knee with the other.

“Maybe more, honestly, You’ll get through all of this Bofur.”

“I’ve no choice,” Bofur sighed as he lifted his head and absently gripped the hand that clutched his knee, “No rest for the weary ye know.”

“Sometimes,” Bilbo whispered as he leaned close to Bofur face, “there actually is. If you want it.”

Bofur’s eyes widened and he pulled his face away from the hobbits; a familiar sensation flooded through his body so suddenly that his cheeks flared.

“Don’t ye feel this is…unethical?” He asked just as the hand on his back coasted upward and began to fiddle with the dwarf’s long hair.

“You know,” Bilbo sighed, “I came to help Sada-make no mistake about that-but ever since I’ve been back…being back in your company? I have been feeling…quite unethical at times.”

As Bofur froze under Bilbo’s gentle gaze the hobbit brought his free hand to the dwarf’s chin; Bilbo smiled as he caressed the thick patch of facial hair, and He softly confessed:

“I have missed this!”

“Bilbo,” Bofur muttered, “Uh…p-perhaps…thank ye for comin’ by but Sada is due back at~”

“Thorin said ten o’clock,” Bilbo argued as he suddenly straddled the dwarf, “We’ve quite awhile.”

Bofur welcomed the first kiss with some hesitation, hesitation that caused Bilbo to break the embrace and chuckle, observing the fellow Doctor with seductive eyes.

“You were the one to seduce me in the beginning,” the hobbit recalled as he began to unbutton Bofur’s shirt, “I suppose it’s my turn this time.”

“Bilbo,” Bofur gulped, “This is quite-um-unlike you! N-not that I’m complainin’ but~”

“Sh,” Bilbo ordered as he bestowed the dwarf with another kiss, “I’ve have been wanting this from the moment I laid eyes on you at the airport!”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tragic turn of events proves that the Oakenshield family is far from being at peace.

Sada whimpered, stumbled through the thick brush, and swallowed her painful yelp when she felt the thorns of some unknown shrubbery violently stab at her bare legs as she continued to struggle onward.

Where had Daddy gone?

If he were here, at this very moment, Sada knew she’d be safe!

In one moment she was enjoying time with her father, and then in the next, she was running for her life.

He’d come back!

Showed himself brazenly in the restaurant a moment before She was hustled outside to await their car.

Instead, terrified and completely alone, Sada had broken into a run; Heading into the park across the street. 

She’d lost sight of him after she’d safely crossed the busy street, ignoring the angry demands that she cease her attempted escape.

Maybe She’s find her father, in the vast darkness of the Forest Park, somehow.

Perhaps He’d realized what had happened and was even then trying to find her!

If he didn’t…

It was then His voice cut through the night air, causing Sada to stop in her desperate run and squat down; slapping her tiny hands over her mouth she held her breath and listened to the sound of footsteps approaching her.  
**********************************************************************************************************************************  
“He’s dead.”

“No body, lots o’ possibilities.”

“Lots of things can happen to bodies!”

“Not to one that’s still up and movin’ around!”

Gloin groaned and folded his arms upon his desk and, after watching Dwalin shuffle another stack of papers in his thick hands, dropped his head with a thud.

“He has enough money!” Dwalin argued, “He could’ve holed up somewhere…Hell! Maybe he’s been waiting in Mirkwood all this time!”

“Waiting for what?” Gloin asked with a garbled groan, “What are ye suggestin’? That Frerin hid all this time and-and somehow infiltrated the Oakenshield home to brainwash His own niece into stabbing ‘er own Da’?”

Dwalin smirked, fidgeted for a moment, and then muttered:

“Yer right…it does sound like a bad cop movie!”

Gloin lifted his head, stretched in his chair, and after webbing his fingers against his chest He offered:

“It’s been so long that, legally, Frerin is considered dead. Maybe the lil girl overheard her father-maybe even her cousins-talkin’ about ‘im and…things went from there.”

“Yeah,” Dwalin admitted, though his eyes defied his words, “’s more ‘n likely what happened. Let’s just hope that Hobbit fella can help ‘er!”

“’ave ye heard the rumors?” Gloin asked with a more relaxed tone of voice as his desk phone sang to life, “About Dr. Khairyn and that Hobbit?”

“Who hasn’t?” Dwalin teased, as Gloin picked up the receiver with one hand, and quieted him with the other.

“Aye!” Gloin barked into the phone, “I know I’m a wee bit late love but-OH!-oh…I-I’m sorry Mr. Oakenshield! What’s tha’?”

When Dwalin saw his partner’s face fall, becoming dark like it always did, He rose from his chair and went to where both their coats hung.

After he’d tied his own coat tight around his hulking frame, Dwalin handed Gloin his own, and waited until his partner was ready.

“Sada’s run off,” Gloin sighed, “So…Ye were kinda right. ‘s not over just yet!”


	20. 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bilbo and Bofur head toward Thorin's home upon being alerted of Sada's disappearance while Fili sits in his apartment and wonders over the tragic events of his family's past.

“I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have distracted you!”

“Ye didn’t! It’s not yer fault…how do ye feel?”

He was experiencing the familiar aches, like he always had, but in truth He was more relaxed than he had been in months and he was certainly more at ease considering the terrifying situation unfolding before them.

Bilbo mustered a vague smile and squeezed Bofur’s hand as they sped down the dark street in the backseat of another accursed cab.

“I’m fine,” Bilbo sighed, “Or…I’m trying to be.”

“She can’t ‘ave gotten far Love,” Bofur sighed as they winded down a long gravel road and at last came to a stop in beside a massive, looming mansion, “She’s probably…rebelling against the courts decision!”

“Love?” Bilbo chuckled as the dwarf paid the cab driver their far, “I’ve not heard that in awhile.”

Dr. Khairyn said nothing as he stepped from the cab and held the door open for his colleague, and lover, before leading him to the front doors of the great and renowned Oakenshield Estate.

“He’s not changed it much,” Bilbo observed as he pulled his thick coat closer against his tiny frame, “Has he made any changes to the inside?”

“Uh…no,” Bofur revealed as an aged Butler slowly opened one immense door and stepped aside to let them in without a word, “He’s kept it exactly the same fer some time now.”

“I see,” Bilbo breathed as He followed Bofur inside, knowing full well the dwarf was reminding him that all had not changed even after his own last visit to Oakenshield’s ancestral home.

“Ye sure yer not too tired?” Bofur was asking as they approached Thorin’s home study, “Ye don’t ‘ave to be here after all and Thorin isn’t in the best of moods right now!”

“He never is,” Bilbo pointed out softly.  
*****************************************************************************************  
He’d wanted to race back to his old home the minute after he’d disconnected the call!

He couldn’t of course, though he’d regretted that fact every morning when he awoke in his own small bedroom, with Kili just across the hall.

Sitting in his living room, looking at the clutter that couldn’t be avoided given that the space was cramped to begin with, Fili gulped down another soda and fought the urge to smoke that marijuana cigarette he’d gotten from a friend after another boring college course that day.

It wouldn’t do to get too relaxed after all, not with Sada missing and his autistic sibling sleeping just a few feet away.

Not only that but his frantic Uncle had explained that He’d be by soon enough, to talk to him about what was happening, and more than likely to also bitch and moan about how Fili had disappointed him by abandoning the family like his other Uncle had.

Rising from his handed down sofa, deciding to again fill his stomach with another high-calorie drink, Fili felt the long-held bitterness rise as he thought over the years that he’d spent in his Uncle’s home.

Their Mother Dis, had never truly recovered from the loss of his father, and so had herded all of them into her childhood home to be closer to the only family they had left.

Fili recalled that, before they’d been forced to move in, He’d actually admired his Uncle greatly!

He’d seemed a force to be reckoned with as far business was concerned and, before the death of both his mother and Aunt, Fili had always adored how attentive Thorin had been toward them.

All that had changed and over time his admiration had turned slowly into resentment.

Fili moaned as he pulled open the fridge door and retrieved another soda, he’d have to replenish their stock before Kili noticed, and as he leaned against the kitchen counter he popped the can open.

“Big damn mess she’s gotten us all into,” Fili sighed, hating himself for finally saying aloud what he’d thought from the moment Sada had sunk a blade deep into Thorin’s shoulder.

Another family scandal!

Perhaps, when they did find her, He should suggest Sada be admitted to the hospital.

Truly it was a terrible thought but~

There came a sharp tapping at the door, cutting into Fili’s thoughts, and he set the can of soda down.

He exhaled slowly as he moved toward the loud summons, one hand reaching out to clutch the doorknob.

He’d expected find his Uncle, Standing tall with his arms behind his back, dressed as though about to engage in a formal business meeting.

Instead Fili’s hand dropped from the knob the instant he pulled the door open, his eyes widened and brimmed with tears, and he felt as though he would collapse in despair.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as Thing become heated between Bofur and Thorin, Fili arrives, and delivers devastating news.

“We’re doing all we can, I promise ye tha’, we’ve alerted the entire department to be on the look out. It might be best fer all involved to just retire fer now and~”

“It had to have been something other than Judge Medved deciding Sada was best off with me,” Bofur interrupted the Detective as he tugged at his short beard, “Something had to ‘ave scared ‘er! She’s been adamant about goin’ home with ye!”

“What are you suggesting?” Thorin demanded through gritted teeth as he looked down at his feet, “What are you trying to ask…Uncle Bofur?”

Observing his snooty ex-brother in law, leaning casually against an antique desk while he studied his expensive shoes, Bofur felt as he had hours before.

Like he wanted to throttle the arrogant bastard!

Instead Bofur looked about the room and then at the faces that stared back at his; wondering if He should dare ask what had been on his mind the minute He’d picked up his landline and been told of his nieces disappearance.

“I think, that is to say, I imagine Dr. Khairyn is suggesting that Sada has had a…break of some kind,” Dr. Baggins pointed out as gently as he could without meeting Thorin’s narrowed glare, “An episode.”

“Oh, I see,” Thorin chuckled as his eyes bounced from Bilbo to Bofur, “You mean you think She’s gone off her nut again, because of me, eh? Did the two of you discuss that before or after you sucked each other off?”

“Now wait a minute!” Bofur barked as he came within inches of taller dwarf’s face, his finger poking into Thorin’s broad chest, “There aint no need for that kinda talk!”

“If you’d answered the damn phone sooner we might have found her already!” Thorin bellowed as he slapped Bofur’s hand away, “Do your self a favor Doc…quit trying to pin all of this on me, stop fucking the help, and maybe this time you won’t have to end up burying someone you profess to love!”

“Gentlemen,” Dwalin cautioned as he stepped between the other two quarreling dwarves, “I’d hate have to drag ye both into a cell tonight. Let’s not forget tha’ there’s a little girl out there right now!”

“B-besides,” Bilbo pointed out in squeaky tone, “None of this is anyone’s fault.”

“Agree to disagree,” Bofur replied softly and dryly, and had it not been for Dwalin, the Doctor and Businessman would have come to a violent and bloody resolution to their standing argument.

“Stop it!” Bilbo was ordering as he used all his strength to hold Bofur back while both Detective’s urged Thorin to calm down as they restrained his arms. 

“It won’t help Bo!”

“Let him go!” Thorin was daring with a gleaming smile, “Let the little guy go! Let’s see what he’s got!”

“Everyone calm the feck down!” Gloin was raging, “We’ve gotta keep our minds on the task of finding tha’ little girl!”

“Thorin if ye don’t calm down, I swear to Mahal I’ll cuff ye and throw ye into a jail cell myself!”

At last, after Bilbo had placed a gentle hand upon Bofur’s cheek, and after Thorin had begrudgingly stilled his efforts to break free, a tense peace settled upon the room.

“Did she say anything?” Bilbo asked as He watched Bofur seat himself on a posh leather couch next to a grand, black marble fireplace.

“No,” Thorin breathed, “Like I said we were having dinner and then the next thing I knew…”

He ended the statement with a shrug that seemed to aggravate the rest of them.

“I’m beginning to think She’s having trouble differentiating fantasy from reality,” Bilbo muttered more to himself than anyone else, “Perhaps the loss-all of the losses-that you’ve suffered has had a profound”

“Of course it would!” Thorin barked, causing Bofur to rise to his feet in defense of the Hobbit, “But why can’t you fix it?! Every damn thing you’ve done has ended in failure and worse! My daughter is gone!”

“No she isn’t.”

Dr.’s Khairyn and Baggins, as well as Thorin and the brooding detectives, turned their focus on the one whom stood in the open doorway.

Fili, looking quite disheveled, exchanged looks with all of them before sniffling and jutting a thumb of his shoulder: 

“I got Kili in the car-sleeping-but we’ve got to get to the hospital because Sada’s on the way there.”

“What?” Thorin demanded as he began approaching his oldest nephew, “Is she alright?”

“How’d ye find her?” Bofur demanded as Fili turned and began heading back outside, “Did she say anythin’?”

“No,” Fili sighed, followed by the others, “She…She really can’t talk right now. Paramedics think someone tried to strangle her to death.”


	22. Chapter 22

“Frerin? What’s he got to do with any of this?”

“Dwalin right now isn’t the best time to~”

“Do ye think He’s capable of pulling off…I dunno…a grand scheme?”

“A grand scheme?” Thorin chortled, and he looked down at where his little girl lay, “What are you talking about? Frerin is dead Dwalin!”

Fili, seated in a chair on the other side of the hospital bed, held his cousins tiny hand in his; trying to ignore the conversation going on between his Uncle and visiting detectives. 

‘Doesn’t even look like herself,’ Fili thought as he felt his eyes burn, ‘How could anyone do something so horrid to a child?’

She was covered in bruises and scratches; Sada’s right eye was completely swollen shut and, besides the most serious injury, the doctor had expressed concern that there had been…

“Fili? Did you hear me? Where is your brother?”

Fili brought his own blue eyes to Thorin’s, a great anger broiling up inside of his gut, and he uttered coldly:

“What do you care? Any way, can’t you keep your voice down? The doctors say she needs to rest!"

“You might think,” Thorin pointed out in searing hiss, “That you’ve full custody of Kili but you don’t! Now tell me where He is!”

“You sure as shit didn’t care about him the night you shattered your own mirror!” 

Thorin’s brow furrowed, he cast a look of bewilderment between both his angered nephew and the curious policeman, and then he asked confusedly:

“I…shattered the mirror?” He asked, “When?”

“Musta been drunk,” Fili pointed out dryly, “it happened before the courts-thankfully-decided Sada was better of with Bofur.”

“Don’t-you-dare,” Thorin warned perilously, “This isn’t the time!”

“Please,” Detective Riche urged, “Could we take this outside? We’re still not done here!”

“Alright,” Thorin agreed, but before he followed the two other dwarves he went to Sada’s bedside.

Bending low his pressed his lips to the sleeping child’s forehead, cast a dark glare at his oldest nephew, and without another word disappeared from the hospital room.  
**********************************************************************************************************

“God…Bofur I really thought she was…somehow trying to put all the blame on an imaginary monster!”

“It makes sense,” Bofur sighed, squeezing the hobbit shoulders as they sat in the waiting room.

“For all the good it did,” Bilbo snorted, “She could’ve been killed!”

“Now, now,” Bofur comforted, “Sada is strong-like ‘er mum-and the doctor’s say she’ll recover. What we’ve got to do now is let her know that it’s all going to be alright.”

“Do you think she was…I-I mean…was she raped?”

Bofur grimaced, his grip once again tightened about Bilbo’s shoulders, and he uttered a deep and slow sigh.

“They…they told me tha’ there was some evidence of assault but it wasn’t rape. Best way I can understand it lad is tha’ whoever hurt her started to…but then they stopped.”

“We’ll have to start all over again,” Bilbo mused, “From the very beginning. There’s no telling just how damaged Sada is now!”

“Not really,” Bofur admitted, “Well I don’t think so any ways. What we’ll have to do is to somehow get her to reveal who ‘Archer’ really is-if there is an Archer-…without doing anymore damage.”

“What if it is Frerin?” Bilbo asked, and he felt wounded when Bofur snorted and offered him a disbelieving grin.

“Please!” He chuckled, “Frerin was a lot of things…but he wasn’t that clever!”

“But Archer was his childhood nickname,” Bilbo pointed out, “and he’s not been seen for years.”

“Because he is dead,” Bofur argued as he at last removed his arm from the hobbits shoulders, “and like I said he wasn’t that clever! I think it’s time we acknowledge that there’s the fact that… that you might be right.

I love Sada, Ye know that, but after tonight I think it’s time we accept what’s really going on. Her paternal ancestry? It reads like a damn soap opera!”

“But…who would attack her?” Bilbo pressed, “Why run from the one person she truly only wants to be around?”

“Fer all we know,” Bofur sighed as he leaned his elbows on his knees, “She ran off because she was mad that she couldn’t be with ‘er Daddy…and the attack could have been done by some random asshole! There’s a lot of terrible crime here ye know?”

“So you’re coming to two conclusions?” Bilbo asked with an arched eyebrow, “One in which Sada is truly insane while the other possibility is just…a random act of violence upon an already troubled girl?”

Bofur sighed, rubbed his eyes, and sat up straight before looking at Bilbo and nodding.

“I think ye need to suggest institutionalization fer now.”

“But…” Bilbo began as he rose to his feet, “Bofur She needs to be around people that love her!”

“She will be,” Bofur assured the hobbit just as Thorin rounded the corner, “I’ll visit daily!”

“Thorin?” Bofur called as the taller dwarf swept past him, “Where are ye off to? We’ve got to discuss some things! Hey, hey stop!”

“Let ‘im go,” Detective Medved ordered as he came up behind the dwarf and hobbit, “He’ll be by tomorrow-to the station I mean-to give a statement. He’s exhausted.”

“He’s pissed off is what he is,” Detective Riche pointed out as he plopped down in a chair, “He didn’t wanna hear about yer crackpot theory!”

“I just don’t think we should rule anything out!” Dwalin bickered at his partner, “Believe it or not I’m just as worried about tha’ poor girl as much as anyone else!”

After exchanging information and phone numbers once more, Bilbo and Bofur made their way to Sada’s room, hand in hand.

 

“I’d rather you not make your decision,” Bilbo sighed as they came to Sada’s room at last, “Not until you’ve gotten some rest yourself. Alright?”

Bofur smirked, his hand upon the doorknob, and he said softly:

“I doubt my decision will be any different in the morning.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Unidentified Enemy Plots while Sada is discharged from the Hospital.

_‘Too Close!_

_Way too close!_

_He’s should’ve finished the little bitch off when he’d had the chance!_

_Sentiment was for fools and he was anything but!_

_Taking a swig of Brandy, clearing his throat, He knew he’d have to rethink his plans._

_Thorin was coming apart, like he’d hoped he would, and those idiotic head shrinker’s had no idea how to help that poor little thing laying half-dead in the hospital._

_His main obstacles were undoubtedly the detectives, Fili, and of course sweet little Sada._

_He hadn’t intended to wipe all of them out in one fell swoop but…_

_Taking another slow sip of liquor he sighed._

_He was almost there and sacrifices just had to be made._

_Case closed!_

 

**********************************************************************************************************************  
Two Weeks Later:

 

“I thought it would be nice, to bring over most of yer stuff from Thorin’s. I’ m hoping it will help ye to adjust.”

 

Sada, dragging her suitcase behind her, entered the small bedroom and observed it with little interest.

 

“Ye can unpack when yer ready,” Bofur explained from the door way, “But in about an hour I thought we’d go to Bombur’s restaurant and~”

 

Sada snapped a distraught look over her shoulder and shook her head wildly; instantly Bofur came forward and pulled the child into a gentle hug.

 

“I’m sorry,” He offered as he stroked her dark hair, “I’m sorry, lass. We’ll go someplace else if Ye like-or-we can stay in! I can invite Fili and Kili o’er if ye like!”

 

Sada sniffled and wriggled free of Bofur’s arms; stepping back, continuing to shake her head, Sada said nothing and simply went and sat upon the corner of her bed.

 

“Okay,” Bofur observed as he pulled his ponytail down to let his hair fall loose, “I think we’ll just order a pizza and watch a movie then.”

 

Sada made no sign that this displeased or upset her and when Bofur excused himself his cell phone blared to life from where he’d left it to charge.

 

“Hi Bilbo,” Bofur greeted into the speaker of his phone, “We just got home.”

 

“Any words yet?” Bilbo asked from his own end, shuffling some papers, “Sorry I couldn’t be there with you when she was discharged but I’ve got so much work to do at the moment.”

 

“No problem,” Bofur assured with a soft smile, realizing that He’d come to enjoy the Hobbits voice once again, as he had when their romance had first begun to grow years ago.

 

“As to yer question: No. She’s still not said a word.”

 

Bilbo sighed and cleared his throat, a silence passed between them, and at last the Hobbit pointed out:

 

“She might never speak again Bo.”

 

“Aye,” Bofur agreed, “and if she don’t that means she’ll stay with me permanently I guess.”

 

“Thorin won’t like that,” Bilbo groaned, “Where is he, anyway? I’d think He’d want to be there when Sada got released!”

 

“No idea,” Bofur answered flatly, “Probably hammering out some redundant business deals!”

 

Bilbo chuckled but said nothing of Bofur’s consistent cynicism, and after Bofur listened to him shuffle some more papers over the phone, the hobbit asked:

 

“Shall I still come over this evening?”

 

“O’course,” Bofur answered cheerfully just before he looked over his shoulder, “I could use the company.”

 

“After I’ve tried to have a session with Sada of course,” Bilbo scolded delicately, “Then I’ll tend to you!”

 


	24. 24: Late Night conversations.

LATER THAT EVENING:

“I’ve told you, several times, that Frerin is dead! Dead, dead, DEAD!”

To emphasize his point, Thorin slapped the table with both of his large hands before placing them in his lap.

“Thorin,” Detective Medved moaned, “He’s got somethin’ to do with all o’ this! Why else would Sada claim her attacker-the one whom supposedly caused her to attack ye-has the same name as yer brother?”

“I would know!” Thorin spat as he leaned menacingly across the interrogation table, “Don’t you think I’d notice my long lost brother…coming and going in my own home?”

“Not when…not when your story isn’t matching up to what we’ve discovered.”

Thorin’s eyes widened, danced around the room wildly, and he let out a great huff and slumped in his chair.

“Wh..what?”

“We obtained the footage from a security camera-er-a traffic camera really. It was across the street from the restaurant,” Detective Riche sighed, “It shows Sada running off an’ all but…it shows her running off before you even were outside yer self.”

“Well I…” Thorin started, but he took notice of how intently Detective Medved was examining his right hand.

“Where’d Ye get those scratches?” the rougher looking policeman inquired dryly, “It would…They look like scratches. Ye said you went lookin’ fer yer daughter, aye?”

“I did,” Thorin answered, though it was obvious by his crumpling demeanor that he himself was becoming quite lost, as if he was unsure of whether or not he spoke the truth.

“It’s all quite muddy to me.”

“Muddy?” Detective Medved repeated with a cough, “I dunno know about either o’ you but if Me own child went sprintin’ off It’d be difficult fer me to forget all that went on before and after!”

“I went looking for her,” Thorin pressed, more to himself than the two leering law officials, “Check the cameras! I was in the forest for sometime before I went home and called for help!”

“Aye,” Detective Riche spoke before his partner, “Ye did appear not long after and…casually took a stroll in the same direction of Sada.”

“Casually?” Thorin snorted, “If I appeared calm at all…w-well think about it! All that’s happened and who I am!”

“Ye say ye went to the park, into the forest,” Detective Medved reiterated with a sigh, “Is that how ye got the scratches?”

“It has to be!” Thorin barked, jumping to his feet, his panic becoming harder to control, “Where else could they have come from?” 

The two older dwarves exchanged nervous glances, Medved rose while Riche remained seated, and Thorin felt his very blood run cold.

“Would ye mind if we checked the scratches?” Detective Medved asked as he crossed his arms over his broad chest and averted his old friend’s astonished gaze, “Just to be sure?”

“Check the cameras!” Thorin rasped in disbelief, “I-if you saw Sada and Me then surely you saw some…odd looking fellow! Hell! Maybe if I saw it I could point out Frerin!”

“There are faces we can’t place,” Detective Riche agreed, “and if ye really want to help we’ll show ye the video we pulled-maybe even Sada can take a look if her Doc thinks it’s okay- but…will you let someone have a look at those scratches?”

Thorin gulped, clenched and unclenched his fists, and for what seemed an eternity he started back and fourth between the two waiting detectives.

“I want my attorney.”  
**************************************************************************************************************************

“I call Bull Shit! Complete and Utter Bull Shit!”

“Hush! You’ll wake her!”

Bofur moaned, Bilbo kneaded his shoulders firmly as he sat behind the dwarf, and for a moment there was a much needed silence.

“A likely story,” Bofur muttered while Bilbo smirked, “Memory Loss? Stress? I’m so sure! Tha’s why he’s mounted a defense already!”

“He’s a person of interest now,” Bilbo pointed out as he continued his massage, “So of course he’s going to prepare him self!

“Ye get anythin’ outta her?” Bofur asked, changing the subject as had been doing all evening, “Did she say anything at all to you?”

“Just the usual so far,” Bilbo sighed as he at last stopped and enveloped Bofur’s shoulders, “Silent. But she still reacts strongly when I ask anything that would…point an accusing finger at Thorin.”

“Probably terrified,” Bofur mused, “We could use tha’ in court!”

“Oh Bo,” Bilbo sighed as He nuzzled his cheek against the dwarf’s, “Always so certain! I know that You and He have never seen eye to eye and that it’s not looking very good for Thorin but…you mustn’t forget about Sada.”

“I’ve not,” Bofur explained with as best a shrug as he could manage, “But I just…it’s all comin’ together now!

“So you think,” Bilbo explained softly, “When I ask about Thorin, If I even so much as suggest any wrong doing on his part, Sada’s reaction isn’t really one of fear. She’s offended, frustrated that We won’t buy into what’s she’s been saying.”

“I know, I know,” Bofur chuckled as he clasped the Hobbits entwined fingers with one large hand, “But with me Sada’s reaction isn’t really one of fear. She’s offended, frustrated that We won’t buy into what’s she’s saying.”

“I know, I know,” Bofur chuckled as he clasped the Hobbits entwined fingers with one large hand, “Which makes you hesitant to condemn the fool as eagerly as I have.”

“Exactly,” Bilbo hummed just before Bofur turned his face and kissed the Hobbit for a long, soft moment.

“He could’ve coached ‘er,” Bofur explained after another quick kiss, “Probably been doin’ so since the beginning!”

“You’re starting to sound like Detective Medved,” Bilbo teased as He returned the dwarf’s sweet affections, “Will you be joining him tomorrow after Sada’s interview?”

“Ach!” Bofur chuckled as Bilbo nibbled at the curve of his ear, “No ‘tis better if I stay. Beside I dunno know what he expects to find at that stuffy old cabin!”

“He’s just like you but on the opposite side,” Bilbo explained when Bofur at last broke free and stood up with a wicked smile upon his face, “Just as you want to rush to convict…He’s doing all he can to acquit his friend!”

“Yer ruining the moment!” Bofur teased as he removed his shirt while Bilbo scooted to the head of the bed, “Let’s stow all o’ this till the mornin’!”  
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End file.
